Self-Building

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SELF-BUILDING


Here is a heap of scrap

wood, left like a crumbled map


of the builder’s attempt to raise a self-

made structure sound enough


to keep the chaos out. With the materials

available to him—pallets behind the local


feed & seed—the builder did his best 

to get it off the ground. What's left


is baptized in kerosene, christened with a match,

and burned. The builder steps back to watch


an odd assortment of light shards rise

skywards on twisting pillars of ash. 


Rejoice, builder: In both the building

and the burning, then, ascent.


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