Mortgage

I built this home in silence

Steel beams, a fortitude long built,

Forged by molten anger,

Bricks of betrayal and

A mortar of silver linings—

The fusion between my logic

And the knowledge that such logic

Could not change the pain.

My roof leaks from time to time

And I chase the sun in those pin-prick points

And pray I find salvation.

See the facade and paint and poetry

Are all metaphors and masks

Gyprock plaster over broken bones

Split lips over bleached teeth,

Laughter that echoes in empty chests.

I took the hurt, the anger,

The desperate emptiness

And quietly sketched the blueprints

Over long nights not acquainted with sleep

Until the job was done—

I built a home the wolf would laugh at

And everyone commended the achievement.