Shift Gate

Steel-toed
dawn

slipped by,
pockets

bulging with
wind,

as the watchman
searched

our dinner
pails 

for squirreled
caches 

of nuts
and bolts.

Photo by Albert Potjes on Unsplash.

John Peter Beck

John Peter Beck is a professor in the labor education program at Michigan State University where he co-directs a program that focuses on labor history and the culture of the workplace, Our Daily Work/Our Daily Lives. His poetry has been published in a number of journals, including The Seattle Review, Another Chicago Magazine, The Louisville Review and Passages North, among others.