Did you know,
a train once moved spools of wire through Ralph’s gritty lot? 
The spool tops you now ash cigarettes upon
all that remains of American Steel
are the ghosts,
I don’t know how many
died on the manufacturing line, in the fires,
we don’t have those historical records 
anymore than we do the anecdotes 
for what good has lasted as long as 
the train tracks
still zombie armed from the resurfaced earth 
among the gravel craters we gnawed apart
over decades of traversing this lot 
so many lives impacted here,
all before between upon a diner cart.

Did you know,
the G on the front of the Chadwick Square Diner 
was the first letter of the last name of its owner, Robert 
Gilhooley died, and they rolled his lunch car around town
there’s a supermarket now 
where he started this Washburn building addition we know as Ralph’s 

Did you know, 
it was the 1800s when the Washburn patent holder sold their half of what quickly became the monopoly on barbed wire?
Worcester, little old Prescott and Grove 
held a chokehold on hoop skirts and razor wire spools 
can you imagine now 
if this town were the premier provider 
of crop tops 
a passing fad
somehow fed families for generations 
generational wealth born from reems with barbed edges 

Did you know,
barbed wire is currently one of the United States largest imports?
What Worcester once created cheap for farmers 
is now exported by China at 5 million miles a year 
wrapping
prison yards and war fields, 
how many anecdotes do we need 
from the torn up skin of survivors to quantify the 
collective trauma one little square block of a city can be exploited for. 
what was once a means 
for provisions, 
keeping cattle safe an industrial revolution 
became a symbol for violence and gates and cliche tattoos

Did you know,
this neighborhood now hosts a makers market several times a year? 
There are artists walking the dusty tracks weekly, to pedal and troubadour
a revival of beatniks and community rumbles 
the war torn parking lot daily 

Did you know,
one of the thirteen old American Steel buildings now holds
half a dozen mental health services?
There are small businesses
and local restaurateurs
freckling the puppeted carcass
of a factory responsible for so much mutilation
now beating with the heart of every ameliorated artisan with in it

Worcester is proof of reform
Worcester is proof of life

Did you know a crop top can be weaponized by a body with a voice loud enough to scream shell shock into the dirt?

Did you know every artist who conjures from the ghosts of energy left stirring in an old city block holds the kind of wizardry the government would harness if they had any sense for the love required?

Did you know?
Did you, no 
                no,
you should know.
I hope you know,
what it means to sit here. 
To harness the devil’s ropes and slice apart outdated expectations,
to be the next generation with a wealth of knowledge 
the cowboys and pioneers couldn’t imagine
Worcester would be known for
us;
never 
let anyone take what you make for granted 
or anything less than vital
restitutions