Labor Day

-Joseph Millar



Even the bosses are sleeping late

in the dusty light of September.


The parking lot’s empty and no one cares.

No one unloads a ladder, steps on the gas


or starts up the big machines in the shop,

sanding and grinding, cutting and binding.


No one lays a flat bead of flux over a metal seam

or lowers the steel forks from a tailgate.


Shadows gather inside the