Under Orion
As the sun comes up over the hills south of town,
I start rebuilding the house, brick by brick.
I’m careful, avoiding the easy mistakes,
meticulously placing each brick — still cool
from the evening air — on the soft bed
of mortar. They sink onto the row below
like lovers leaning back onto the pillows.
I do this because I have to. The house
needs to be remade. But I also know, as sure
as the sun is rising, that tonight, like every night,
the bricks will fall like stones in an avalanche.
I’ll hear a thump from the back of the house.
Then another from over by the bathroom.
Within a few minutes a sound like a steady rain
will fill the night air, and when I open my
eyes — held tightly shut against the falling —
I’ll be standing in the night air under Orion’s
glow, stripped naked and shivering.
5 December 2012
Auburn, AL
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