BUT THE WELDERS' SHOP,
doors flung open on hot days
and you’d peek in see them at work,
vizors covering faces, noses, chins,
anonymous men, focused
on blazing sparks, shaping hot metal
into parts for submarines to cool
in Arctic waters, asbestos gloves pulled
up to their elbows, unknown
until the four o’clock buzzer sounded
and they stripped off overalls and vizors
threw down gloves onto benches, turned off
acetylene blow-lamps, reclaimed their identity
became someone you danced with at Vickers Sports Club,
became someone your dad knew, became
someone’s brother, someone's father, someone's
lover - no longer Hephaestus, gods of fire.
doors flung open on hot days
and you’d peek in see them at work,
vizors covering faces, noses, chins,
anonymous men, focused
on blazing sparks, shaping hot metal
into parts for submarines to cool
in Arctic waters, asbestos gloves pulled
up to their elbows, unknown
until the four o’clock buzzer sounded
and they stripped off overalls and vizors
threw down gloves onto benches, turned off
acetylene blow-lamps, reclaimed their identity
became someone you danced with at Vickers Sports Club,
became someone your dad knew, became
someone’s brother, someone's father, someone's
lover - no longer Hephaestus, gods of fire.
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