I.

Negaunee caves in.
they're moving Palmer.
Republic used to be a bluff.
Ishpeming has no tax revenues
now the undergrounds have closed
Tilden Location is now a metropolis
Cliff's Drive is blocked off
with open pit low grade iron pellets

in 75 years
the largest gem in the world
Jasper Knob
of jaspillite and hematite
will be an open pit too

but they don't call it
strip mining.

here's to The Company!

Mr. Mather and his friends
explored and coveted
they bought and litigated
claimed from the Chippewa
and the word went

New England and Europe
to the famished of famine
Cornish, Irish, French-Canadian,
Swedes, Norwegians,
Finns and Italians later.

poor people
second sons unmarried daughters
sailed to Ellis huddled
carriage canal and railroad
boat and hope
carried them to Ishpeming, Michigan,
where their cousins worked.

housemaids and miners
housemaids and lumberers
housemaids and carpenters
shoemakers merchants farmers
barkeeps and miners
and miners' sons
sought respectability
in claimed cedar swamps
bearing
babies and an ethic
work and not welfare

damp mines and falling chunks
the ore to make the autos
to make America
what it is

compasses went crazy
north pointed south
at this iron red
dust soiled the sheets
hand-wrung, hung
on clotheslines frozen
stiff as walls
between workers and bosses
ore
red mud covered sensible
boots tramping trails
in mosquito-owned woods

II.

we are yours, Company.
you pollute with our blessing
you own the land
you hired our grandfathers
our fathers
brothers husbands

you gave us girls college
at Northern and
"teaching is a good job
for a woman"
you own the land

our sons go to Northern too
they live in Detroit now

III.

my dad died of cancer
he worked in your shops
the noise made him deaf
The Company paid the bills
my mother is a widow
with a small pension
now there's unions

my husband worked the Empire Mine
he spit taconite black ooze on the pillow
for a year after he quit
but he made good money
saved up for college
my cousin's your accountant
we are yours, Company

you showed us the land
your land seduces us
trout deer waterfalls
clean water pine woods
you only pollute a little
you sent our kids to college

you helped us
own our homes

we had nothing
when we came
you own the land
our homes stand on
you hire us
to move our homes
when you wish
to dig a shaft
a pit
a strip
you own the land
and jobs
are more important
than land

we are yours
wrapped and fenced
we are your
links in the chain

pass it on