Shadow of fashion by Cassie Kinney (poem)

photo source  pulitzer center

We the consumers, are part of their debt,
These clothes are made from their blood and sweat.

Deep cracks visible in the walls,
More than 1,000 people killed as the building falls.

19 year old Reshma was found after day seventeen,
Under 700 tons of concrete and steel beams. 

Bangladesh garment factory on fire,
Leads to more people killed five months prior. 

Across the 4,500 Bangladesh factories,
3.6 million workers hold these painful memories.

On 38 dollars a month or a dollar a day,
We can't expect people to work their lives away.

East Asian garment workers' lives in peril,
But the West don't care when they get their cheap apparel.

By Cassie Kinney, 8/12/2015