Pilgrimage to Mecca

For me, as a masonry designer
my Mecca and my pilgrimage
was indeed one of the finer
trips I took of a curious age.

To Alpena, Michigan
and Besser Headquarters
is all I could ever wish again
to see them take their orders.

Their excellent concrete block machines
in over a hundred countries
producing block ‘round the clock it seems
mixers, makers and sundries.

Provided by this one great company
for concrete manufacturing
their own equipment will trump any
the history from which they spring!

In the basement of their museum
I snuck down to the old machine
when I knew they couldn’t see ‘em,
I played with levers seldom seen.

What intrigued me the very most
was the odd, weird, and eerie sensation
by the machine stood Besser’s ghost:
offering me faint congratulation.