building houses

Alan Finlay

yesterday		i was breaking wood
tomorrow		i am building houses
can you turn		so silently in your sleep
there is a house		i want with blinds
heavy scent		your breath
there is a house		i have with words
bricks for building		a path of cement
driveway turning		in fading light
until you are
		i watch you go
lost in the vertigo		of what i know
your cement paths		leading away
the sound of dark		coughing along the road
strangers come		with their handfuls of nails
i sit with their faces		as if they're made
for building houses		hammering in
the day, so
		it makes no sound, so it
shuts the windows

                   (your inch words

                                 breathe on my face

i wait for you		who can turn
back to me

i wait                         for my last window

First published in Carapace

LitNet: 25 April 2006

Click here to read more poetry by Alan Finlay

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