New England Diary

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Where he worked

A long-closed textile factory on the Merrimack River in 1909, during its heyday.

 

“Here are the instruments of the makers,

their testaments of gears and wheels.

This is where men and women are called

To the daily stations of common task,

And so I stand with my father

In a child’s reverent silence.’’

-- From “Sunday Factory,’’ by W.E. Butts (1944-2013), a New Hampshire poet laureate, about a father showing his very young son his place of work