North Tool & Die, Inc.

mono-hum of engines, tires rolling
into parking lot past
crushed cat on the curb
broken legs in crabgrass
final breaths under chickory
 
​concrete block boxes
planted on asphalt
a hard town
 
tool          and           die
feeds     or       eats us
spin the wheel
stamped steel
                                    drill press
                                                            lathe and
punch
 
high school boys hard lean on
the good shop job’s risk
 
D—’s smashed fingers
            at age 35
he’s done              now
 
 
                        there’s an opening
 
 
on the line

---

 Kim Jacobs-Beck grew up in the metro Detroit area and now lives in Ohio. She is the author of a chapbook, Torch (Wolfson Press). Her poems can be found in Nixes Mate, Gyroscope, Apple Valley Review, SWWIM Every Day, roam literature, among others. She is the founder of Milk & Cake Press and teaches at the University of Cincinnati Clermont College.

Art: