John Peter Beck

The Apprentice

It isn’t about if,
it is about when.
When I started,

every tradesman
had a story of near
death or accidents

where fingers fell
like leaves to the ground
or laid still on the table saw.

I learned that the older guys
had the stories ready
for a reason – no more blood

on the job, no more
new tales to tell. I was happy
to be their apprentice,

to see how the work could flow
and how right actions
created right work, right

angles came from right plans.
Measure twice, cut
once. Dom Bosco,

you looked out
for the young, made
their welfare and success

part of your pact
with God, became
a saint. I was

green once like all
your charges, the young
apprentices of Turin.

They had the blessing
of your love
and wisdom,

but not all listened.
Your words left hanging
in the air like ripening fruit.

In my first days
in the trade, I gained
my own future story

to share, saw my friend
cry out and fall, the fresh flash
of bright red across

the shop and the thumb
now alone on the wrong side
of the whirring blade.

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John Peter Beck is originally from a mill town on the banks of Lake Michigan in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. He is a professor in the labor education program at Michigan State University where he co-directs a program that focuses on labor history and the culture of the workplace, Our Daily Work/Our Daily Lives. His poetry has been published in a number of journals including The Seattle Review, Another Chicago Magazine, The Louisville Review and Passages North among others.