***content forthcoming
***update 4/2/2011: content no longer forthcoming

the walls were built like laying bricks.  the sods were cut about two feet long, were thirteen inches wide and four inches thick laid with grass side down.  we had one rough-made door about six feet high and 2-foot-6-inches wide which was difficult to fit into the sod walls.  the roof was lean-to type, there were three windows 2 feet by 2 feet with four lights in each.  being set in two foot wide walls not much light could come in, of course no storm windows.  many cold days in winter an inch or more frost would gather on the inside of the windows. 
inside, it was 12 feet wide and 22 feet long.  ten feet was curtained off for a bedroom, and the other 12 by 12 feet was used as a kitchen and living room./james rugg/1905
 

(skulls and bones in foreground)


the beginning of better things

lichens etc.

hunger will make us mean
it will make us be not goodlooking
any more and we will become stringy
we will live in trailers and tents
on brownfields in long grass
behind long high fences made
of linked chain and steelpoles
hunger will make us pick up
things and throw them at each
other and throw things at animals
and run through the long grass
where the windblown refuse blows
we will throw things at each other
and throw things into the river

at that time we will grow ratlike
we will wear our hair in the style of
other animals like for example
the rat and we will grow leggy and
wild and sleep under bridges
we will sit underneath concrete
and watch the river all night and
get wasted and play with lighters
and pick up things and throw them
and throw things into the river

cold that was the coldest ever recorded

cold that came in from the north like

cold wind off cold forged iron and steel, 

cold as ice twas, twas transparent pure

cold glass hoarfrost, windblown rime

cold sleet and cold wind turning into

cold snow and ice falling down from the

cold sky all night and continuing through

cold morning and several more days

cold nights and mornings and more

cold afternoons and evenings and nights

 

so they walked to keep warm

and when that was not enough

they ran to keep warm and when

that was not enough they hit themselves

with their fists and hit each other

and they drank til their faces were

numb and with bic lighters thawed
extremeties and lit their cigarettes
they sat in the coffee time and
they did not look like men or women
they drank liquor from coffee cups
and looked out the window listening to

q 107 classic rock all day and night

till the sun came up and the cashier

came from behind the counter

and told them all to go home and
that she had already called the cops

shall iron break the northern iron and the steel?
/lamentation (biblical)

thou shalt be filled with drunkenness and sorrow, with the cup of astonishment and desolation.
/wassail (biblical)

waes haeil!

land of iron
land of junk iron

land of that which is hinter

land of that which is not toronto

land of pieces of shit buildings

land of cars driving and parking

land of late winter grey snowbanks

land of what is seen from commuter bus window

land of grise or that which is grisly or greyed out

land of grottiness glimpsed through grit

land of grocery stores the size of cities

land of gritty parkinglots, ground glass, gravel rooftops of the

land of greatness, great size, greatly going, going through

land of all one can see from window of commuter bus

land of qew the long highway, the longest highway one has ever known

land of sitting in a seat and looking out the window of the commuter bus

land of that which has been covered in gravel, hoarfrost of salt, dirt, shit, urine,

land of sweatfrost and the various slowmoving body fluids which comprise this

land of internal organs, lakes and streams, fens, bloodways, bloody

land of scabs, frozen blood, blood on the arm, hot knives agains the body

land of people on qew the long highway and in the various great cities

 

going to hamilton

going to see the king

passing under king st and

wearing the yellow and the black

wearing it out and

wearing it back

passing the city hall and 

seeing the people

standing in the square

holding signs and

huddling in the wintertimes

seeing the people vs. u.s. steel

staying warm by the fires

firing up the steel drum

staying warm by the old cokefire

sitting down by the fireside bright

burning the home fires

stoking the coalfire

holding the hot iron

fucking cold out

camping out on mary st. or

going home in the dark

holding hands over the stove's

glowing elements

staying warm

heating up the can

eating from the can (you can)

getting all liquored up and

holding a hot knife

holding it against the body

having iron in the hand and

carrying iron around

carrying it in the coatpocket

keeping the iron warm with the hand

warming the iron up

hearing about u.s. steel

spending 55 million $/yr to be

heating an empty building

heating the steel walls of the

building on depew st. where the

parking lots are motherfucking empty

 

were it cold, boy? were it ever

i say, i say: it were the coldest on record.

boy it were a hard one, hard to do or make,

hard times, dang, harder than iron, iron lung.

i say, i say: king kong's dingdong