Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, REAR-PORCHES OF AN APARTMENT-BUILDING, by MAXWELL BODENHEIM


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

REAR-PORCHES OF AN APARTMENT-BUILDING, by                 Poet Analysis     Poet's Biography
First Line: A sky that has never known sun, moon or stars
Last Line: On brick walls.
Subject(s): Cities; Poverty; Urban Life


A sky that has never known sun, moon or stars,
A sky that is like a dead kind face,
Would have the color of your eyes,
O servant girl, singing of pear trees in the sun,
And scraping the yellow fruit you once picked
When your lavender-white eyes were alive.
On the porch above you are two women,
Whose faces have the color of brown earth that has
never felt rain.
The still wet basins of ponds that have been drained
Are their eyes.
They knit gray rosettes and nibble cakes.
And on the top porch are three children
Gravely kissing each other's foreheads,
And an ample nurse with a huge red fan.
The passing of the afternoon to them
Is but the lengthening of blue-black shadows
on brick walls.





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