MADDOX TABLE - Natalie Merchant


    the legs of Maddox kitchen tables
    my whole life twisted on a lathe
    in a foreman's torrent
    my first English was
    "faster boy if you want your pay"
    barking commands
    loud and simple
    we could all obey

    then I was forever pulling silvers
    rubbed the sawdust always
    deeper in my eye
    varnish vapor that could linger
    on my skin
    it held tight
    the whine of spinning blades
    still echoes to bother my sleep at night

    see that ox
    stamped dead center
    on the letter head of the company mail
    four decades a spitting image
    of the animal I portrayed
    at Maddox Table a yoke was carved
    for my neck

    sun through the window oil spattered
    and in mason jars
    tricked plenty seeds thrive
    the standing joke
    around the shop was
    with my green thumb
    anything'd grow
    my part was to laugh
    show and ornery jig had
    cut it at the knuckle bone

    see that ox
    trade mark burned
    into every stick of furniture
    from horn to tail
    four decades a spitting image
    of the animal I portrayed
    at Maddox Table a yoke was carved
    for my neck

    was tailor made

    o my Dolly was a weak
    not a burdened girl
    treat her to a piece of vaudville
    a Wintergarden moving picture show
    Bemus Point on July Sundays
    by trolley we'd go

    to your benefit we's strike or bargain
    with the waving fist a union man
    not just for
    smokes spirits candy and cologne
    but for
    automobile keys
    cash in the bank
    and the deed
    on a place called home
     

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    Marco Giunco
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