Atlas Obscura; Joe Magarac Statue

The steelworkers lament is the secret song of wanting
many unoffered dreams. Your decidedness—
decided for you.
The end of the world is Edgar Thomson Steel Plant;
yet Edgar is not even the statue’s name, it’s his overseer.
“I really wanna hit the Magarac Statue when I’m there.”
Kelsey wants to lay witness to our Paul Bunyan of the steel industry.
Joe Magarac is a comically large, seven foot Terry Bradshaw look-alike
who bends a steel pipe for all eternity into, presumably, a jump rope.
His sinews all snickers-bar-throb,
the mill, an amusement park,
and he, it’s Colossus–Mickey Mouse.
My father rides red Bronco past the mill, speeding
as if to look back now, Joe Magarac will catch him
in his big metal lasso.
Anything can be a muscle car if you drive hard enough
especially for anyone from Pittsburgh,
especially for anyone driving away
“My teacher would talk about that statue and say that’s you Charlie.
He was my favorite teacher. You’re not going to college
you’re going to ETU, he meant Edgar Thomson University. The mill.”
Those were your choices when you came from Braddock.
Prison, army, knock-up a rich girl, perhaps the more fun of the three,
or Joe Magarac’s metal jump rope.
It just came down upon you in harsh rhythmic flap—
the closing of some eyelids on your future.
Just cause you grew up where you did.
Just cause your daddies-daddy did it too.

Kendall Snee is a Pittsburgh-based poet and 10th-grade English teacher. On Tuesdays she hosts the open mics and slam poetry events through Poetry Lounge in Millvale. Snee is a former writer-in-residence at City Books, a reader for Parsec, and a volunteer at City of Asylum. Consider following her Substack: SneeLikesToRead for all things literature.