Fred Voss
I Once Needed a Chance Too
19-year-old Hector
stands beside me at the machine
ready to learn.
He has never held a micrometer in his hands before,
doesn’t know anything about what the thousandth-of-an-inch calibration
marks
on its barrel mean,
what tolerances on dimensions on blueprints
mean,
what a cutter is or rpm
or how to turn the handles
or punch the buttons
of a machine.
He looks up into my eyes eager to learn
and suddenly the big metal crucifix
hanging around his neck
and the blue tattoos covering his arms
and neck and all the fear and anger and shock
in his eyes from all the gang violence
and madness he has grown up with in the barrio
and my peaceful middle class on-the-way-to-college-and-a-lawyer-
or-doctor-future
upbringing
mean nothing
in the face of his desperate need of a chance
and we nod at each other
and put our hands on the tools he will need to do the job
and look into each other’s eyes
and become father
and son.
Page(s) 36
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