Kessler's Coffin Factory

Kessler's Coffin¹ Factory
Ogden Avenue, Jersey² 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 planks³
 of walnut⁴（胡桃） , birch（桦树） , and maple⁵.
 Pine shavings piled inches
 deep on the floor oozed⁶ sap
 over the steel-toes of the aproned（围裙） man
 who stood hours turning scrollwork
 while near him another burnished⁷
 stacks of brass⁸ cornices and grips,
 and the friendliest, saddled
 with a sagging⁹ belt of hammers,
 mouth bristling¹⁰ with nails,
 tacked nameplates（铭牌） and sterling¹¹ 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 clogged¹² with dust.