Through the smoke-lit pool halls, back roads, rehab centers, truck stops, and diners of the still industrial world, Sean Thomas Dougherty offers us the stories he has lived and collected of men and women barely working, just getting by, but every morning still going on, even if unsure.

Unsung unbearably blue, even frightening

in how they leave us, our responsibilities

among the debris, these utterances

we cannot hold.

Sean Thomas Dougherty is the author of nine books including Nightshift Belonging to Lorca, a finalist for the Paterson Poetry Prize. He lives in Erie, Pennsylvania, where he teaches writing workshops.