Foundation Dilemma

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Foundation Dilemma 


He knows that to really get 

under the comforters


and shore up the bed-

rock the house must be stripped


like sheets, the house he has 

worked so tirelessly to keep 


from falling must be utterly de-

paired: insulation from sheetrock, 


sheetrock from studs,  

patched pipes popping 


from couplings like cut veins 

till nothing remains but a soup 


of sewage and what once was dry-  

wall. And he’d pray for such


a severing storm, even swing 

himself the sledge, could he be


sure the children would emerge

clear-eyed from the wreckage,


assure him they understood

how necessary the nightmare.


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