Blue Collar Guy Poem by Michael Pruchnicki

Imagine a burly guy in denim jacket
capbill shadowing busted nose
hairy mitts gripping coffee mug

sitting at a table in the Union
on the campus in Hyde Park
gazing with wonder at a girl

seated opposite him
bright-eyed and fresh
in sweater and jeans

I thought then of my father
a man who had toiled
a lifetime in the mills

so that one day he might
visit one of his children
on a university campus

He was a blue collar guy
who never read poetry -
his life was an epic!