#180 Is Trapped

I can’t get out

I figured that out after the first week

I’ve been surviving on excess ham byproduct

It keeps leaking from the joints in the machines

I don’t know what it really is

So I call it 'ham'

But it keeps me going

I found some water dripping from a pipe

About a quarter kilometer that way

It tastes sort of foul

But it hasn’t killed me

And that’s a good thing I guess

I can’t believe I got into this

I didn’t listen

Mother told me this would happen someday

Well, not this exactly, but something

And, it did

Happy, Mother?

You were right

I was on a tour

This is the largest factory in the world

16 square miles

It feeds half the world’s population

And is completely automated

There is a maintenance break every year

And that’s when they have tours

I wandered off,

Went through a one way door

And that’s how it happened

The next day, the plant started up

And I have a year to wait for help

If I could last that long

Everything is stainless steel it seems

And inches thick

All the joints are sealed with concrete

Keeps pests out

Like me

I got a label scraped off one of the pipes

I’ve written a note on it

With my trusty blue pen

I think I can slip it into one of the cans

I can see them through a hairline seam

They march by rather slowly

I know I can do it

I don’t know what else to do

I didn’t see any other labels anywhere

Here’s hoping!

*

Somewhere in Alberta, Canada

On a sunny Sunday afternoon

Six months later

Rajesh opens his can of meat

For a sandwich

And finds a note

It says:

“Help, I’m trapped in the Spam Factory……”