MISSION

Here they come. Striding from the project

parking lot across the road, their white shirts

gleaming, their white faces beaming, they come

with congenial zeal, argon blue ties

flapping in the breeze like flags. I pretend

not to see them. I am bending over

my work, building dry limestone walls where grass

once grew, grass I grew tired of mowing

and tore up. My plan is to plant a tree

and shrubbery, things that need little

tending and that will grow to block the view

from our front windows of the bald brick

tenements, the asphalt lot and condemned

incinerator—a view that made our home

affordable because people fear

the proximity of the poor and all

their attendant malaises. I am filthy,

unshaven, squatting amidst my jumble

of antediluvian stones. These clean,

bright boys stand a moment on the sidewalk

until one speaks: “Quite a project you've got

going here.” Not half the job you're about

to undertake, is what I think, but say

instead, “It keeps me out of trouble.”

“Could you use some help?” the other one asks

and I, wry and homespun at my Frostian

task, rejoin: “I wouldn't want you to get

those nice shirts dirty, fellas.” “I've got plenty

more where this one came from,” he fires back

without pausing. No doubt you do, I muse,

an immaculate closet stuffed with stiff

white collars and a rack with a week's worth

of neon-bright ties flashing in my mind.

“Listen, guys, let me save you some labour.

I'm as firm a non-believer as you're

likely to meet and nothing in your spiel

is apt to alter that.” They stay silent

a moment, both shuffle their feet, one pokes

a polished toe at my half-built wall. “Well,

alright, but don't hesitate to call

if you need help with anything—anything

at all.” I am plagued at moments like this

one—standoffs between me and my negative

self—by staircase wit. After they've left,

their white backs a beacon in the sun

as they dwindle, pursuing their mission,

I wish I'd reciprocated their offer

of aid, but instead had just muttered, “Thanks,

but I can handle this fine on my own.”