The Magpie Sings the Great Depression:
Selections from DeWitt Clinton High School's Literary Magazine, 1929-1942

Danger: Men at Work

Stanley Gottheimer, '37

The Magpie, January 1937, v. 21, n. 1., p. 44.

I
Men—
through whirring turnstiles clashing
As nickels clink through narrow slots;
Into crowded subway dashing—
Out again like great jackpots!

II
Men—
As night shifts leave machinery's roar,
Out from salt box company house streaming
Into mines and mills and company stores
These pented proletariats pour.


III
Precariously pivoting
On naked steel,
As blasts of riveting
Uneven his keel,
One, rivet-flipping
From perilous perches,
Is screamingly slipping
And streetward he lurches!
Confusion and terror
A few hours lurk—
Then blasts of riveting
And men back at work.

IV
Exploding and clicking
In murky, black hole,
Blowing and picking
Out Pluto's waste—coal—
The shaft, weak and quivering
From many explosions,
Collapses in shivering
At man made erosions!
Debris and bodies
Cleared out—and then
Exploding and picking
Continue again!

V
And so many others—
Steel-men and writers
Prospectors, conductors,
Artists and fighters;

VI
Salesmen and actors;
Lawyers, announcers,
Stevedores, doctors,
Crooners and bouncers.

VII
Such division of labor—
Poets and seamen;
Thin, soft-eyed dreamers and
Practical "he-men."

VIII
So hark to the sign there
And don't look so perk,
For God knows, there's danger
When men are at work!

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