Aerosol adhesive from the spray gun blows−
the polyurethane parts marching
front and back and
front and back−
green and orange hummingbirds in her lungs,
nights working the manufacturing line,
days doused with drugs and dead dreams.
Broken Buddhas line her window sill.
Upon graduating from college, the best paid jobs PS Nolf could find were in factories: stitching crotches in panty hose, heat sealing snow mobile cables, gluing polyurethane parts, greasing ball bearings. Eventually she figured out how to overcome the stigma of a BA and MA in anthropology to find a job in technical writing. Producing technical manuals pre-WYSIWYG had its own hazards. Cut and paste involved an exacto and a paste pot which is how she ended up walking into the nurse’s office with a knife stuck in the top of her foot. Eventually she moved into corporate training and the knife in the back was literal, but just as painful.