IF YOU ARE READING THIS by James Hoch

/ / Issue 19, Uncategorized

We are building a house 
small in the woods, 

refuge from disquiet
or vague boredom.

It must weather distance,
the hurt of proximity.

We do not mean to,
though we are so good 

at breaking, scavenging 
old bone and feather, stalks of 

wildflowers outlasting 
the hour of their heads. 

You are boss, and look boss, 
hammer and spackle knife

and blue hair, plastering.
At a window you like the way 

open sounds, so you mouth it
until the word too becomes

some thing to occupy.
You can’t take it with you, 

and the house won’t stay 
when you’re gone. 

Wind is saying this, 
the way wind likes to say things,

likes the door swinging,
petals over the floor,

then floor, then house, 
then whatever was before.


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