David Frazier, 7/30/2012

Current Occupation: Retired Steelworker (2003-Present)
Former Occupation: Production Steelworker (1972-2003)
Contact Information: David was born in the steel town of East Chicago, Indiana. He attended D.E. Gavit High School in Hammond, IN. He spent one year attending Indiana State University in Terre Haute, IN. He met his wife Kathie (of 39 years) there. David Frazier grew up to be a third generation steelworker at a mill in Indiana Harbor. He worked there for 31 years before developing an illness causing him to retire. After retiring, he began taking creative writing classes at Bernard Klienman Learning Center. He wrote a short story for the book, “Kindred Voices 2” published by the University of Massachusetts. He and editor/publisher James Ward Kirk have mutual respect for each others work.
David is a featured poet in most James Ward Kirk anthologies including, “Indiana Horror 2012” and “Indiana Science Fiction 2012”. David has also has many poems on line. Circus of the Damned blog has several of his poems on line. “Harvest Time: Inwood Indiana” has printed one of his poems. “American Steelworker’s Saga” an early work, is included in the National Gallery of Writing (National Council of Teachers of English). David’s poems are popping up in many print anthologies and magazines.

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Steel Memories

Over thirty years ago
I made a trek,
To days gone by.
Another place, another time.

Through number one open hearth
A ghost mill.
No bells nor whistles sounding,
No clanging or banging.

No loud voices,
Nothing but silence.
Dark and dead.
I still smelled sweat,

Of those who toiled there.
Pungent odor.
Dust flew from my boot
As I trod.

Past each silent furnace.
Steel was made for Henry Ford
And many others.
In old furnaces now cold.

Slag makes up our city streets,
A by-product of steel-making.
I reflect, my father worked at a
Open hearth for many years here.

My Grandpa
Worked as a locomotive engineer.
I was at the B.O.P.
Three of us together gave,

Over a hundred years,
Of our lives to:
Inland Steel, Mittal,
And Arcelor/Mittal.

Grandpa and Dad are dead.
Just as dead,
As number one
Open hearth.