To an Unknown Construction

From this window,

I can see

(though another building's half-obstructing)

a scruffy team of workmen

amid the cold

with some kind of thing

they are constructing.

I'd like to go out

and ask them

"Say, whatever this supposed to be?

A warehouse, office building

Ottoman castle, or factory?

Explain. It's not so clear

to me."

Insallah, one of them might

step up

with crooked speech

and earnest look

and try his best,

by hook or crook,

to recall the English lessons

he once took.

After all

and everything

I might have heard

I would still not divine

the strain of though

from the train of words.

And they,

(like every Turk I've ever known)

would not be content

to leave my ignorant well-enoughs alone.

January 30, 1991