Shift

Many of the bodies arose at the graveyard shift
From the literal graveyard as from the hot beds
Of the federal housing project; they bent their backs
To the war effort.

Many sinews snapped, the grandmothers
Played out soonest in the local moonlight,
Nor was a headstone any less heavy
Upon younger necks strained and retired.

The impulsion of the people's will clearly
Had got down six feet underground.
But whether any argument got down there
Mortality has not ascertained.