Frames are still being welded, transmissions bolted to engines, acetylene torches lit gold like the light from miners' helmets on groaning timber. Coal is still chiseled, and dust spun into lungs. Fingers black with dye, young girls disappear in looms. Women boil metal, pour it steaming into molds. Day fused to night, millions of laborers, backs crooked and hands cracked, manufacture bottles, canisters, and cogs, replicating product that will never reach foreign markets.
Soldiers turn semis back at the border.
Executives charter planes, shift funds into Swiss accounts. All rights reserved.