Architecture and Human Design
An architect is someone who designs buildings, keeping in mind aesthetics and functionality. The speaker in the poem acts like an architect, exhibiting an eye for line and design in their precise observations of the dilapidated building. The very first lines of the poem read, "There are just not enough / Straight lines," defining this as a problem. Straight lines are made to represent safety and structure, which this building lacks.
Architects concern themselves with the way natural light falls in a space. In the final image of the poem, eggs are metaphorized into houses of faith. Their walls are thin and bright as a result of their "Gathering the light / Into themselves" (Lines 19-20). This speaks to a resilient nature that the speaker suggests is part of human design: existing in the space they do demonstrates the resilience of the building's inhabitants.
Resilience
After outlining the structural problems of a building, the speaker then comments on the resilience of those who live there. These lines read, "Into this rough frame, / Someone has squeezed / A living space" (Lines 11-13). Despite the discomfort and even danger of the structure, its inhabitants have created a "living space," most likely because they had no other choice. The poem focuses more on the building than its inhabitants, who are notably absent in the poem. However, their imprint is felt in the description of the building and the eggs they left in a wire basket. For example, the lines "The whole structure leans dangerously / Towards the miraculous" suggest that the fact that anyone lives there is a miracle, because it is a miracle that the place is still standing at all (Lines 9-10).
Acknowledging the Difficulty of Poverty
While the speaker comments on the resilience of the building's inhabitants, the difficult conditions in which they live are also relevant. This is expressed through descriptions of the building itself: beams balance crookedly, nails clutch at open seams, and the whole structure leans dangerously. Because the structure is declared to lean "towards the miraculous," the speaker suggests that it is a miracle that someone "has squeezed / A living space" into this rough frame (Lines 10 and 12-13).
Imtiaz Dharker has said that this poem describes living spaces in Mumbai known as slums that are often created out of a variety of found materials. It is important to note that the poem does not specify the setting, giving the poem a universality and speaking to the fact that people all over the world live in these kinds of conditions.
