A populist anthology that touches the heart of North American life. Included are 200 selections by 90 Canadian and American writers, from foundry workers and short-order cooks to the likes of Joyce Carol Oates, Patrick Lane, Pier Giorgio di Cicco, and Tom Wayman.

Introduction --Where things come from -- Short order cook / Jim Daniels -- Hams / Herbert Scott -- Coffee / Herbert Scott -- Canned goods / Herbert Scott -- Relief locations manager / Herbert Scott -- The night crew / Herbert Scott -- Butcher / Ernie Brill -- Math class / Ernie Brill -- Lunch time at the Blower / Martin Glaberman -- Foundryman / Martin Glaberman -- Ecology / Martin Glaberman -- Work shoes / Jim Daniels -- Fun on the line / Jim Daniels -- Moonman / Jim Daniels -- Factory time / Tom Wayman -- The fibreglas factory / Eric Johnson -- Shop noise / Michael Taylor -- The line / Michael Wilson -- At the break / Eugene McNamara -- from Punching in: 2 / Eugene McNamara -- The academy / Roger Taus -- The rock / Roger Taus -- Advice to a friend entering the factory / Jim Daniels -- Every day armor / Suzanne Kwoka -- Overhead crane / Peter Trower -- Printing press no. 17 / Gwen Hauser -- My job at the nut-house / Gwen Hauser -- Where things come from / Gwen Hauser -- Felton's fragrances / Gwen Hauser -- The two policemen / Gwen Hauser -- White thorns / Mary di Michele -- Company time / Mary di Michele -- Industrial poem / Peter Trower -- Stacking lumber / David S. West -- Overtime / M.C. Warrior -- Days: construction / Tom Wayman -- Concrete / Herbert Applebaum -- Pulling out / Michael K. Thurman -- Fare eyes / Michael K. Thurman -- Rollin' stock / Michael K. Thurman -- How the old timer does it / David Beaver -- Love's labor lost / David Beaver -- Love goes out of style / David Beaver -- Ever so briefly / David Beaver -- No free rides / David Beaver -- My thyme / Hans Jewinski -- The secret is to know your man / Hans Jewinski -- Robbed / Hans Jewinski -- Where are we now? / Hans Jewinski -- Blackmail / Hans Jewinski -- End of the week / Margie Marks -- Song of the permafrost waitress / Erin Moure -- The locker room / David Conn -- A hundred thousand hours / David Conn -- The mirrors of nailheads / David Conn -- The layout / David Conn -- Two weeks notice / David Conn -- A question of priorities / Gene Dennis -- Loading rice at 14th Street / Gene Dennis -- Colors of emptiness / George Benet -- A bill of sale / Gene Dennis -- Confirming this existence -- And if you wonder how I could have such heroes / Peter Christensen -- Keeping fear away / Peter Christensen -- Graveyard shift / Peter Christensen -- Tripping / Deena Hunter -- The driller makes a mistake / Deena Hunter -- Blind rivers of no sun / R.A. Kawalilak -- Early shift / Peter Trower -- Booby trap / Peter Trower -- The beacons of the bad days / Peter Trower -- You can't help smiling / Jim Green -- Spring logging / M.C. Warrior -- Percy Logging, Powell Lake Division / M.C. Warrior -- Autumn logging / M.C. Warrior -- Bushed / M.C. Warrior -- Billy the Kid's letter from Island Camp on up the coast / Eric Ivan Berg -- from Accidents: IX. The men there were then / Howard White -- The uphill cable fable / Robert Garrison -- Slash-burning on Silver Star / Patrick Lane -- Lightning storm / Sid Marty -- Grub hoe / Sid Marty -- To a black bear / Sid Marty -- Search and rescue / Sid Marty -- Elk on the line / Jim Green -- Coyote Pup and the crazy people in Kootenay National Park / Dale Zieroth -- Bulldozer joke / Howard White -- Really out in the bush / Howard White -- Flagging for highway construction / Roslyn Smythe-Chenier -- Diesel haiku (Occidental) / Bruce Hunter -- First job / Howard White -- Gravel trucks / Peter Christensen -- The water-truck / Patrick Lane -- The section / Bruce Cookson -- Remembrance Day / Jim McLean -- On the old outfit / Jim McLean -- Willy / Jim McLean -- Summer vacation / Jim McLean -- At Balognie / Jim McLean -- I refuse / Sandy Cameron -- Bunkhouse north / Patrick Lane -- Wild horses / Patrick Lane -- Tractor-factor / Gene Dawson -- from Tobacco: Topping / Janet Kauffman -- from Tobacco: Cultivating / Janet Kauffman -- They only hurt for awhile / Bruce Cookson -- A wet summer / Brgoramu -- Picking tomatoes / Janet Gibson -- Working for oysters / Shirley Miller -- Relief / Jim Green -- We slit the last / Jim Green -- Undercut / John Skapski -- Net-man blues / John Skapski -- Just another walk on water / John Skapski -- The salmon in the Green Felt Sea / John Skapski -- Night-running / Zoe Landale -- Poem to the sea / Carolyn Borsman -- Tofino / Carolyn Borsman -- Bare Island / Carolyn Borsman -- The fish come in dancing / Kevin Roberts -- Olfactory / Kevin Roberts -- Off Lasqueti / Kevin Roberts -- Hooked / Kevin Roberts -- Deadhead / Kevin Roberts -- What it can mean -- from Memoirs of an office worker: Two o'clock pick up / Chris Wind -- from Memoirs of an office worker: 101, 102, & 103 / Chris Wind -- White-out / Sandra G. Shreve -- The secretary meets the ecology movement / Bronwen Wallace -- Attendance register / Joy Kogawa -- The success ladder / Joy Kogawa -- Mental cruelty / Sandra G. Shreve -- The sales pitch / Ronald Kurt -- The bartender speaks / Pier Giorgio di Cicco -- They pay me to sit around / Brgoramu -- Cyclopian eye / Jack Brooks -- The bride's table was flanked by two tall rapers / Nellie McClung -- The test / Phil Hall -- Tending the troubled / Morgan Nyberg -- Ward clerk at the Ottawa Civic Hospital / Nellie McClung -- Breakfast / Ernie Brill -- Infected leg / Ernie Brill -- Fedup / Ernie Brill -- State home / Amanda Powell -- Eddie / Phil Hall -- Suppository / Phil Hall -- Ovila / Phil Hall -- Paralytic / Bruce Iserman -- Silly woman / Bruce Iserman -- Hot afternoons / Maureen McCarthy -- Memory / Maureen McCarthy -- My last night on the cardiology service / Kirsten Emmott -- Baby girl / Kirsten Emmott -- Surinderjeet / Kirsten Emmott -- I want to one morning / Gordon Turner -- Parasite paradise / Jan Conn -- Inside the aphid palace / Jan Conn -- Microscopic beetle blues / Jan Conn -- Pheromone plume / Jan Conn.