measure twice : cut once : but it was more : than just that : you have to square away : make a plan : think of the possible : uses : abuses : what is load-bearing : what will be : strictly ornamental : consider the foundation : something lasting : how everything you : will need should start there : think of the future : the potential : add-ons : build-outs : I remember : someone once told me : the desert people : because they have : no forest : have no glulams : or a way : to support beams : he had said : you use : what’s available : how true : how fundamental : not to dream : of materials : or import them : from great distances : I saw a house once : eaten from within : because the builder did : not know : about subterranean termites : the weight : of the travertine : marble counters : just brought it all down : that much faster
J. P. Dancing Bear is editor for the American Poetry Journal and Dream Horse Press. He is the author of fourteen collections of poetry, most recently, Cephalopodic (Glass Lyre Press, 2015), and Love is a Burning Building (FutureCycle Press, 2014). His work has appeared or will shortly in American Literary Review, Crazyhorse, DIAGRAM and elsewhere.