About the work

The pigeon came in because the window was broken, but it stays because of the heat. In winter, this room is the warmest in the building, and the bird will perch on the motor housing, sometimes for hours. It flies down to the floor to peck at the coal dust, or at the thread scraps that fall from new work. It nests in the corner now, behind the big cutting table. Nobody touches it. It is never shooed away. It has never once tried to make a nest in the unused Singer, though that would be the highest and safest place.