Night of the fire

People leave the monastery to the factory then return from the factory to the monastery. They confess amid the dim candlelight, clean and remorseful, within the limits of modesty and the ability to face oneself. Then in the night, their sighs and sounds of their sins are heard, through the long windows close to the ground, amid the roar of engines, the noise of gears, and the shouts of the masters. Murmurs and incomplete pleasure sighs and stolen agreements about a night that might come true sneak in, reach everyone's ears as if they are the only sound in all this noise. In the houses, they eat and sleep troubled, each with his two palms, one of which he blocks a brick to ensure his hereafter, and the other to guarantee his servitude. Yet they do not think of the horror of the rooms and the morning ghosts that make the air a thick dream that cannot be traversed.