Shelter

Could you take an axe

A pick or a maul

And hollow a space in the stone the width and breadth of two 

And I will use the hand plane and the lumber and I will use bolts and braces

To fashion a door for the hollow

With a strong latch.

Once we are both inside,

And the world is fully outside

We will cry the racking sobs that had nowhere else to go,

For many years and some

Odd months, held back.

When we emerge

You will be iron and I will be alloy 

And the sun will warm us. 

And can you

If you are able

Undo the lashings holding this pack?

It is heavily filled and spills over

With sorrow and regret

Causing me to stoop

If not such an imposition

If you have the strength

Help me drop it in the river

It will become sand

Then

We will build a table of oak and maple

And we will set it with all good things

And eat our fill,

Til joy happiness mirth and innocence

Are the only things we hear ringing in the forest

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