View From the Factory Floor by A.M. Pryor

gazing up at this
grand devouring machine
spinning golden thread
from the fraying ends of hamstrings
to embellish a purple tapestry
dyed with the blood of the weavers
and indigo stripped from our fading jeans.
the underside is untrained chaos
we mustn’t show the appraiser.
can’t make him see what he’s
afraid to be.
shall the chipped bits of my knee
be polished for his veneers?
I will serve caviar on
the plate ripped from my shattered elbow.
Our calloused feet,
our cracking hands,
this arthritic walk will stride over mountains.
the screws in my femur
bind these parts together.
the screws in my femur
will catch this spinning flywheel.
and I season my eggs
with the dust from the fans
that’s clogging sweat inside my pores.
and I will serve scrambled eggs
because yes we are a family
but never how the manager says
“we’re a family here.”
because it’s true I see joy in the eyes of the people
as we tie our heartstrings together
how else to make it through?
and I see rage in the arms of the people
as we count our stolen wages
as we count the rich’s write-offs
as we count our rising rents
as we count the empty buildings
as we count the dead by freezing
as we count the investors squatting
as we count the statehouse lies

Take it.
Take it.
It’s ours.
Take it.
It’s ours.
All this world is ours.
This world is ours to win.

A. M. Pryor is a laborer, poet, musician, activist, and angry transsexual from Indianapolis, Indiana. A born-and-bred Hoosier, her work is imbued with the cultural imagination of the Midwest – straight shooting, unpretentious, and stalked by the shadow of Evangelical Christianity. She writes with the knowledge that all art is political, and the best way to make a statement is to write without trying to make a statement. Her current obsessions include good and bad love, uncounted statistics, transfeminine rage, and the movie Pearl. Ms. Pryor graduated from Indiana University – Bloomington in 2020 with a degree in sociology and a minor in creative writing. She briefly studied under Ross Gay and her writing was featured in the 2017 exhibit An Illuminated Mind. You can find her at any number of local open mics, punk shows, and overpriced coffee shops.