Poem for Display in an Abandoned Factory

Why is there no battlefield memorial here, where generations of workers ground down their lives? Why no place for the veterans to return, pride mingling with grief, clutching made-in-China flags & mumbling about sacrifice? Why doesn’t the county historical society raise money to preserve this site just as it was, before the pink slips came— a mass unmanning— & the great steel taskmasters were unbolted from the shop floor & sold for scrap? Why doesn’t anyone except us trespassers, sneaking in like the weeds & sparrows, want to remember which parts were assembled here & where they fit?