Original Document

“Original” was stamped
on the document
giving my grandfather
permission to work in the mill.

On this 5th day of June, 1912
Toy Hudson,
of his own volition,
desires to be employed
by the Dallas Manufacturing Company
at fifteen years old.
His father signs the papers
wherein my grandfather
becomes the property
of King Cotton.

Fibers float in the sweltering,
crowded warehouse air
where machines clatter, whir, and stir
their deafening noise.
The man-child takes hold of the shuttle
working the clouds
picked by colored hands.
Those bitten and calloused by seeds
bring the swollen
and filthy matted mess
to be cleaned up
so to appear proper
in public places.

My grandfather waits for the long,
full throated factory whistle
to signal the day’s end.
He walks with other workers,
his empty paper lunch bag
swinging loosely in his hand,
toward the village.
He will sleep awhile and return.

He passes the colored men
unloading bales
that will be worked tomorrow;
his future guaranteed.