New England Diary

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'They wear in they wear out'

“Jake takes over from Otto, slubs mortar onto brick, clumps brick

 

   onto mortar.

 

Does this. Does it again. Wears out.

 

Topples over: No pause.

 

Rene appears. Homer collapses. Angelo springs up. No break in the

 

rhythm.

 

slub clump slub clump

 

They wear in they wear out.

 

They lay the bricks that build the mills

 

that shock the Blackstone River into yellow froth.

 

-- FromThe Tragedy of Bricks,’’ by Galway Kinnell

The Blackstone River runs from Worcester, Mass., to Pawtucket, R.I.