*
Don’t see much poetry on this site. So here is one that a buddy brought me from his old college lit book while my wife and I were (and still are) building our house. The author’s name is Alan Dugan.

LOVE SONG: I AND THOU

Nothing is plumb, level or square:
the studs are bowed, the joists
are shaky by nature, no piece fits
any other piece without a gap
or pinch, and bent nails
dance all over the surfacing
like maggots. By Christ,
I am no carpenter, I built
the roof for myself, the walls
for myself, the floors
for myself, and got
hung up in it myself. I
danced with a purple thumb
at this house-warming, drunk
with my prime whiskey: rage.
Oh, I spit rage’s nails
into the frame-up of my work:
it held. It settled plumb,
level, solid, square and true
for that one moment. Then
it screamed and went on through
skewing as wrong the other way.
God damned it. This is hell,
but I planned it, I sawed it,
I nailed it, and I
will live in it until it kills me.
I can nail my left palm
to the left-hand cross-piece but
I can’t do everything by myself.
I need a hand to nail the right,
a help, a love, a you, a wife.