Trapper Markelz
Industrial, Mixed Use
Parcel # 179-183-16 contains 10,454 Sq. Ft. and was built in 1979
You have grabbed the last wrench from the box,
hoses loose, grease oozing from o-rings,
chisels & drivers nicked with engine gore.
You can only replace an impeller so many times
before the rubber blades no longer push water,
before the cylinders start coughing up blue smoke,
& you possess an oil pan so gritted
not even degreaser has the patience
to clean it anymore. When we were kids,
we used to dip our hands in the solvent tank,
inhale the fumes until our eyes turned
as red as a check engine light.
We have swept oil sand from the chipped
gray-painted shop floor more times
than you can count on an odometer,
totaled up the bolts in an inventory box
more times than the swipe of a credit card
at the cash register. We wanted to impress
the geriatric mechanics–those guys
with oversized paychecks & steel washers
pushed over their wedding fingers.
We’d envy their enjoyment of a workday Lucky Lager
in blue coveralls that disguised heavy metal
T-shirts, masked work order ink blots & sweat.
Fifty summers of oil stains on gravel built
a lifetime. Now they are gone & we are gone
& the workbench sits as empty as a weekend gas tank.
All those tools lined up in boxes,
chances to choose, to see what would become,
now lie like coffined bodies.
Trapper Markelz (he/him) writes from Arlington, Massachusetts. He is the author of the chapbook Childproof Sky, a Cherry Dress Chapbooks 2023 selection. His work has appeared in the journals Baltimore Review, Dillydoun Review, Wild Roof Journal, Greensboro Review, and Passengers Journal, among others. Learn more at trappermarkelz.com
