the business
man I shook
hands with
drinking local
whiskey at the
party Christmas
winter I mean non
religious for the
green
group where
his wife
donates her
hours bought
just bought
an old Victorian cheaper
than a Craftsman in
one of Portland's
oldest best said
cost the cost
of doing
business one
cost of
doing
business all of
life of costs
a cost the business
man made
exercise machines
in China for
the bodies of
Americans
to sweat upon
the muscles heart
and blood vessels
the lungs he said
they never
even counted
labor
costs the labor
lives so cheap it was
the metal minerals
the plastic
parts they had
to calculate the labor
lives so
cheap they didn't
even count


About this poem
"The 'craftsman' style of architecture grew out of the British arts and crafts movement, which was a reaction against the Industrial Revolution's devaluing of workers and individual craft. It also was a reaction against the opulence of Victorian style-and aimed at making well-designed homes available for the middle class."
-Allison Cobb

About Allison Cobb
Allison Cobb is the author of "Green-Wood" (Factory School, 2010). She works at the Environmental Defense Fund, a nonprofit environmental advocacy group, and lives in Portland, Ore.

***
The Academy of American Poets is a nonprofit, mission-driven organization, whose aim is to make poetry available to a wider audience. Email The Academy at poem-a-day[at]poets.org.


(c) 2014 Allison Cobb. Originally published by the Academy of American Poets, www.poets.org. Distributed by King Features Syndicate