Machen, to do or make.

Low tones through thin walls, the
bouncing Germanic rhythms of my mate
and her dear Freund, with the unpronounceable umlauted name, he's
here for a visit,

freeing her of English, which she has to speak through
a funnel into sharp drops

later they will make love, most likely,
after all
he's only here for a few days,
and I'll most likely
hear them through the walls, rhythms again,
no longer particular to motherland (or Vaterland),
and I expect it will be both cheerful and practical,
as when she dries her laundry over the back of our chairs, or
boils a potato each morning at breakfast.