ACCESSORIZING

 

1918; Max reads Charles Reznikoff's poem

About the shopgirls leaving work

So the rats and roaches can begin their shifts

Reznikoff's family makes hats. Sometimes

Reznikoff sells them. Max makes coats.

On her day off, a shopgirl -- I see her

As tall and thin and talkative, moving

Rapidly or not at all -- could wear

A Reznikoff hat and a Max-made coat;

My other grandfather, Joe 

Could make a watch for her. No;

It's 1918 and Joe is in the army. His father

Juda will have to make it and sell it

From his shop on a street that will disappear

Thirty years later to make an approach

To the Brooklyn Battery Tunnel. Still

We in 1918 could care less; we're thinking

Of that tall shopgirl and wondering

What, if anything, she's wearing

Besides a coat and a hat and a watch.