Instructions for building a house

Painting by Ben Grasso

You build a house
with wood.
Self-explanatory, perhaps,
but who considers
a plank of wood
and what, exactly,
goes into it?
Each plank is
a decision, wrought
with knots in stomachs
and cold sweats
in frigid mid-December.
There are good decisions
(sturdy, glossy wood)
and bad ones
(rotten planks,
most probably the ones
a good contractor
will use in your basement).

You build a house
with stone.
Each rock is a gem,
hand-picked by
gentlemen with beards
named Larry and Pete.
In these stones
a steady hand might find
a rib of metal,
or two,
and you build a house
with this as well.
Craft a growling furnace,
a building's beating heart,
set the air warm
and watch Life go -
an inquisitive creature,
actions all founded
on curiosity.
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