A spot welder
worked next to me
for a couple of weeks—
mask, torch, gloves,
cap backwards
like a jockey
looking at the sun,
until his eyes fell off a cliff.
I guess he went by feel-by-touch,
the way the union rep held a girl from the cafeteria
in the parking lot after work,
driving around the foundry in his pickup
waving to everybody while it rained,
his eyes closed just in case.
John Stupp is the author of the 2007 chapbook The Blue Pacific and the 2015 full-length collection Advice from the Bed of a Friend both by Main Street Rag. His new book Pawleys Island will be published in 2017 by Finishing Line Press. He lives near Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
A Quiet Courage 