Working Town
By Alice Winship
This is a working town.
I told you, this is a working town.
Follow the seagulls down.
You’ll find a row of gantry cranes where the water meets the rails,
And the berths for big container ships, loading up to sail.
They’ll take the goods from trucks and trains, in a deep and heavy load,
Across the blue horizon to the far side of the globe.
This is a working town.
I told you, this is a working town.
Follow the rail tracks down.
The freight yards echo with crash and bang as the cars get switched around,
And the diesel horn of an outbound freight as it chugs on out of town.
You’ll hear the freight cars creaking as they roll along the track
With the locomotives rumbling and a pusher at the back.
This is a working town.
I told you, this is a working town.
Follow the fish smell down.
You can hear the water slapping at the sides of fishing boats.
Where the old docks are still working, you can smell the creosote.
A tugboat whistle cuts the air, and the cries of wheeling gulls.
In the shipyards, workers – black with grime – hose barnacles off the hulls.
This is a working town.
I told you, this is a working town.
Follow the steep streets down.
If you’re holding down a desk in a tower of glass and steel,
These towers grow where goods change hands and shippers strike a deal.
Look out your window at Elliot Bay and all the ships that sail.
Shipping and fishing built Seattle, where the water meets the rail.
This is a working town.
I told you, this is a working town.
Notes
This is my tribute to the city of Seattle. There are many people and industries that built the city that go far beyond the steel and glass office towers and the high tech industry that now has such a high profile. I became aware of the grittier aspects of Seattle’s working waterfront while volunteering aboard various tugboats. Seattle still has a hard working waterfront. The image of shipyard workers covered with grime comes from personal experiences when getting covered with flakes, grime, and grit from hosing off a wooden tugboat. Larger steel hulls get sandblasted in covered shipyards but the workers get covered with grit all the same.
Credits
- Written by: Alice Winship
- Read by: Alice Winship