Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire

Today marks the grim 100-year anniversary of the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire: March 25, 1911, in New York's Greenwich Village. Due to heartless labor practices and negligence by factory owners, 146 people died in under 20 minutes from fire and leaping from the building's 9th floor in desperation. Most of the dead were females; most in their late teens and early twenties.

http://www.ilr.cornell.edu/trianglefire/

Near the End

Near the end
of this cold March day, mark
how the tall straight trunks
of tulip populars in mass -
leafless from winter
and ranged up the slope -
enbark and furrow
the last slant of light
to a ruddy-gold glory,
before dusk, before night