Building
A couple walks
into a house and knows
it is the one.
For years they
will bend it
and each other
toward
the life they want.
Around beds
of irises and echinacea
her gully rocks doze.
His callouses raise
walls for chickens,
basil, arugula,
pour a foundation,
puzzle together a dome.
Her toddler task:
hand up
triangular panes
of glass one by one
and wait
until he is done
with other
buildings paying
bills, feeding children.
Their silent fights
could fell a pine,
peel a porch,
invent new words.
Their tenderness
could birth a
sutra, decades,
this church.