Free Impact by Billeh Nickerson

I. Construction
THE LOST WORKER
    Â 
    Whether the rumours resulted from the faint clangs,
    or the faint clangs resulted from the rumours,
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    even the oldest believed the possibility
    of a lost worker could only be an omen.
    Â 
    No matter their sense of wonder,
    the pending deadlines, or their hurried pace,
    Â 
    in the back of some workers’ minds
    their rivets sealed more than just the hull.
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    At home they hugged their children,
    kissed their wives
    Â 
    or dreamed of families
    they had yet to realize.
    Â 
    In the back of some workers’ minds
    their rivets sealed more than just the hull.
    Â 
    Â 
----
HARLAND AND WOLFF
    At six-twenty each morning
    workers would congregate
    by the green gates, often arriving early
    to avoid the crush of thousands
    for the sooner they reached
    their work stations,
    the sooner they started
    to earn a wage.
    Â 
    Those arriving late
    were literally locked out
    and would lose a whole day’s pay
    not to mention the funds spent
    holed up at the public house
    avoiding home.

----
THE HATS
    Most workers wore duncher caps
    save for the foremen
    who wore bowlers
    and The Hats
    who’d enter the main office
    in top hats black
    as a stoker’s coal-covered face.
----
THE RIVETING SQUAD—THE HEATER BOYS
    They could tell a rivet’s temperature
    by its colour
    and once it reached 650 degrees
    it seemed as if they channelled Hephaestus,
    the Greek god of fire,
    for when they extracted rivets
    with their tongs,
    it looked like they were throwing
    miniature lightning bolts
    to the Catch Boys.

----
THE RIVETING SQUAD—THE CATCH BOYS
    Often as young as thirteen or fourteen,
    they’d catch the rivet
    in a tin, grab the scorching metal
    with their tongs
    and then, as if passing a baton
    in a relay, run full-tilt
    to the Holder-Ons.
----
THE RIVETING SQUAD—THE HOLDER-ONS
    They’d help place the rivet
    in the desired hole
    and secure it with little more
    than determination
    and a fourteen-pound hammer
    for the Riveters.
----
THE RIVETING SQUAD—THE RIVETERS
    They needed to wear scarves
    around their necks
    all year long, no matter the weather,
    to stop bits of rivet ember
    from getting down their shirts,
    burning through their skin.
    They’d stand on opposite sides,
    clang – clang clang – clang clang – clang
    to shape everything into place.

----
GOOSE BUMPS
    It took three million rivets
    to piece the ship together
    Â 
    though only a few seconds
    for a small child to notice
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    it was as if the ship
    had a surprise chill
    Â 
    for it seemed her hull
    was covered in goose bumps.
----
A GIANT ELM TREE
    Perhaps it was simply
    the colour
    Â 
    of her copper propellers
    that drew comparisons
    Â 
    to giant elm trees,
    a tip of the hat
    Â 
    to the earthy hue
    amongst all that grey.
    Â 
    Or perhaps it was a desire
    to connect with nature
    Â 
    in some way,
    an organic cousin
    Â 
    when the politics
    of scale veered
    Â 
    so far into the realm
    of manmade.
----
BELFAST, MAY 31, 1911
    Twenty-two tons of train oil, tallow and soap,
    and a father as he explains to his son
    the art of friction—
    it’s like when your hand got stuck
    in grandma’s vase and your mother rubbed
    butter around your wrist,
    how you slid free
    as easily as the Titanic slid in.
----
THE CLOTHESLINE
    One woman grew accustomed
    to seeing the great ship
    whenever she unpinned her laundry.
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    Sometimes it was an apron
    or one of her husband’s shirts,
    clothing large enough
    Â 
    that when removed
    it framed a portrait
    of the Titanic in the distance.
    Â 
    On laundry day after the launch,
    she kept squinting
    in hopes her eyes had failed her,
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    the familiar view now missing,
    as if a sleeping giant woke up
    and walked away.

II. Maiden Voyage

JENNY THE CAT
    Jenny delivered her kittens
    in the weeks that preceded the maiden voyage.
    Â 
    As if she could sense the impending disaster,
    she carried her kittens by the