Building a New Home

The generator kicks and whines,
steam shovel treads grind limestone
to dust. I got up at dawn,
the first blue light anointing
the sweaty backs of the clouds,
both eyes burning with essential salt
leaking down my scalp.
New buildings
Break away from the red broken clay.
Excavation before foundation—
five thousand nail per plywood frame.
We’re working towards something
better—full of daylight, and easy
to enter.
This must be
the song my father taught me:
build each one as if it were my own.
Always take care of my tools,
they are the only things that matter
in this world. They will make me
known among these men.

:: Timothy Geiger, Blue Light Factory (1999)