The same old, cold day

“The waiting room was bright
and too hot. It was sliding
beneath a big black wave,
another, and another.

“Then I was back in it.
The War was on. Outside,
in Worcester, Massachusetts,
were night and slush and cold
and it was still the fifth
of February, 1918.’’

— From “In the Waiting Room,’’ by Elizabeth Bishop (1911-79)

Three deckers on Houghton Street, Worcester.

American Steel & Wire Company, c. 1905, employer of about 5,000 during Worcester’s industrial heyday.