The Ghosts of Mill Towns Past

The ghosts of mill towns past awake
 and seek us in our sleep;
 they tell us work will make you whole,
 and prayer make you deep

I hear them, shouting, from the docks,
 I see them now, in waves;
 I see them slumping off to work
 And to their waiting graves

For this is how we spend our lives,
 our toil, thought, and breath;
 to make the jeans that people wear
 to work themselves

 to death