10.26.15 They worked because they must

           Do you remember when it was that you really changed, and went all in? Can you recall how it felt, waking and facing your day, when you weren't yet up and in its' face, grabbing it all by the front and pulling it to you with some sort of drive that surprised even you, as it burst out of you?      

        How even with mind numbing work and surrounded by others who could not be bothered by you standing there, on the assembly line, doing the same old thing over and over, and well enough to keep the paychecks coming, you still kept yourself awake and nourished and alive?
           I remember the sweat pouring down my spine, sitting on a metal chair for hours, bent over an industrial sewing machine, pushing the thick leather through and under the needle, the heap beside me taller than I was.
        If I dared look up, there all about me were Hispanic women, lined up for what seemed like miles all around, the building a metal hangar, no windows, the supervisors up in a closed in perch with AC, looking down at us, watching, coming round now and then to say things that made sense, or had alternate meanings.
        As the hum of machines thundered through the room, and we almost levitated with the vibration. As I, young and white, knew I would not and did not have to stay long, not so many days,I could already tell.
        As my boyfriend with the trust fund who worked days and nights at a Walmart type place, would understand, and give me a bye, what with his savings account and all.

       As I sat there with my butt aching and wiping sweat from my face and looking into all their faces, as they worked because they must.