021615   021624

Though Poet Laureate Phillip Levine won the Pulitzer Prize 
he was denounced as nothing more than prose with breaks 
from Detroit on the auto assembly line
he wrote that factories constrict human gravitas 
"a gradual decay of dignity."
Whereas Republicans abhorred union muscle
Levine advanced 
factories discredit personal significance.
Many laborers aspire to paychecks
good pay with a pension 
a lake boat at the cottage 
many covet third-shift 
time-and-a-half is a family prize
a cement patio and backyard pool
color TV in the family-room garage
Levine cautioned that success is mortifying
"the slow corrosion of their minds."