Ogden Avenue, Jersey City
Hot days the workers
threw open the shop doors
and the neighborhood buzzed(发出嗡嗡声)
with the rip of their saws
through the seasoned planks
of walnut(胡桃) , birch(桦树) , and maple.
Pine shavings piled inches
deep on the floor oozed sap
over the steel-toes of the aproned(围裙) man
who stood hours turning scrollwork
while near him another burnished
stacks of brass cornices and grips,
and the friendliest, saddled
with a sagging belt of hammers,
mouth bristling with nails,
tacked nameplates(铭牌) and sterling crucifixes
to each finished box,
some nearly as long as grandfather's rowboat,
others barely big enough
to hold sister's talking doll,
and after our fathers drove off
to the grind of the second shift
leaving their wives leaning out
windows to tend twisted lines of wash,
we kids on the sidewalk
slapped balls and double-dutched
through the vapor-stink of curing varnish(亮光漆)
while over our heads the empty sleeves
and pant legs flapped when our mothers
pulley-squealed them closer
through pitched beams of light
already clogged with dust.
