My steelworker grandpa long ago
forsook the grimy steel town
on the steam-choked lakeshore
that built all the 20th-century skylines and landmarks.
Today, I tried to atone for this original sin
by hauling brush, laying brick,
lifting high abandoned relics.
Sweat doesn’t always purify.
Sometimes it just stings,
clings acridly to the pale whites
of weary eyes awash in cynicism.
Joseph S. Pete is an award-winning journalist and Iraq War veteran. In 2017, he was nominated for a Pushcart Prize and a Best of the Net award. In 2016, he was named poet laureate of Chicago BaconFest, a feat that Geoffrey Chaucer never accomplished. His writing and photography have appeared or are forthcoming in Dogzplot Flash Fiction, Stoneboat, and the High Window, among others. His work frequently appears in framed articles at local restaurants he has reviewed and in prestigious venues like Google Docs.