Kessler's Coffin Factory

　　Ogden Avenue, Jersey City

　　Hot days the workers

　　threw open the shop doors

　　and the neighborhood buzzed(發(fā)出嗡嗡聲)

　　with the rip of their saws

　　through the seasoned planks

　　of walnut(胡桃) , birch(樺樹) , and maple.

　　Pine shavings piled inches

　　deep on the floor oozed sap

　　over the steel-toes of the aproned(圍裙) 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(銘牌) 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.