The Sewers (Garment Makers)

“Ouch!” I’d hear as the needle hit their finger. It was the only human sound I heard from that section of the Oresman Bros. Christmas Factory, muffled as it was by the whirr of sewing machines. The sewer stopped, bandaged up, and went on. There was no more focused individuals in the mill than the […]

“In Honor of Mill-Working Girls” by Colleen Kelly Mellor

I’m product of the mill                 As they are of me— We’re interwoven, Like cotton, wool, and lace Spun by young women Standing at looms Long hours,                                                               Regardless of their time of the month              …migraines… Or unrelenting pregnancies….   They’re ancestral sisters Who believed themselves ‘ lucky’ To tend machines That produced such fine material For […]