April 15th by Aleda Shirley

Taxes due, the anniversary of Henry James's death,

& a brilliant sky rinsed of pollen & glare by yesterday's

record rain.  From the magnolia in my front yard

the Mexican workers who are here to fix

the foundation of my house have hung their lunches

in grocery bags--they look like large dull light bulbs

that have burned out.  When the foreman leaves

on an errand I see the youngest worker struggling to pull

a water hose to the back.  Through the window

I tell him there's another hose in the garbage that will reach,

but he doesn't understand a word I'm saying.  Finally

I point & say aqua & all six of them brighten

with comprehension, although I realize later I used

the Latin work, not the Spanish one.  The house

was slowly sinking, stairstep cracks along the brick,

fractures in the plaster, the floor of the back bedroom

sloping three inches; one night, we heard a huge crash:

the window frame so distorted the glass shattered

in jagged shards, transparent puzzle pieces

on the fruitwood table.  Later, after the holes

have been dug, the forsythia & sweet olive bent

out of the way, the lunches eaten, they jack the house up

& it shudders & pops, the cats head for somewhere

dark & safe, & before I figure out what's going on

I wonder if the workers are playing soccer

on the roof or if there's an earthquake.  By dusk

they're mixing mortar, repointing brick, & in the yard

a grackle, a bluejay, & two cardinals peck

at the damp grass.  I'd love to draw some lesson

from this, that things we can't see hold us up

& it's possible for those things to be repaired.

But I don't buy it; I think how you are

is how you are, that the level of joy or meaning

on the most ordinary Wednesday afternoon

is the level of joy or meaning you're stuck with.

Years from now I'll think of the lunches hanging

from the tree & how at the end of a long day

I heard music in the foreign unrecognizable sounds

of the workers calling to my neighbor's dog.

--

About the author:

Aleda Shirley (May 2, 1955-June 16, 2008) was an American poet.

Some of Shirley's earlier works were published by Kentucky Foundation for Women's literary journal The American Voice.[...]

Aleda Shirley received fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Mississippi Arts Commission, and the Kentucky Arts Council.  Her poems appeared in such places as The American Poetry Review, Kenyon Review, Poetry, and Virginia Quarterly Review.  At her death in 2008 she lived in Jackson, Mississippi.[...]