Mid-Afternoon at the Mason Guild Meeting

image borrowed from bing

mid-afternoon at the Mason Guild Meeting
(& built like a brick house)



brick the sky
brick dirt, brick grass
brick brick, brick plants
brick everything
but you won't keep me in
and you won't keep me out

& Amontillado can't lure me to the cellar,
i thirst-ache for air filled lungs, fresh & biting
yet we build houses closer & closer together
one on top of another, not un-like our lives
leaving little alleys in which kids congregate to play,
rat tails wiggle beneath bags of trash & green space

is reserved in the city center, round-abouts
and occasional flower boxes, but only
on the sunny side

chink-chink-chink
chain nets on the basketball goals, chink
don't swish, chink
and bricks bounce to the chain link fence
where they gather to watch the cars go by
in a slow parade

my son & i on a sunday afternoon,
when i am tired
and a nap would feel nice
after a long week, but each time my eyes
blink, he's there and asking,
"daddy can we---"
"daddy can we---"
"seriously dad---"

chink, chink, brick, brick, chink, brick
we play, until sweat glistening, hair matted,
breath ragged we sit on the asphalt court
& suck water between our smiles,

our bricks piling up, moments & monuments,
mortared by choices & children
to play or---

either way
we are always building

brick by brick by
brick the sky
brick dirt, brick grass
brick brick, brick plants
brick everything, brick every
one

chink


Brian Miller

Posted over on his site Way Station One