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| SID GOMEZ HILDAWA |
| Building a House |
| THE AUTHOR HOLDS THE COPYRIGHT TO THIS POEM. THIS IS POSTED WITH PERMISSION FROM THE AUTHOR. |
| THIS IS PART OF THE LITERATURA READING SERIES | CLICK HERE TO GO BACK TO LITERATURA |
| Pack up your day-to-day activities in bundles, the way one would basket clothes for the laundry; grouping coloreds and whites, matching socks and outfits. Measure the bulk, trace the shapes each bundle takes, then see how they can be arranged: some easily side by side, while some on top of others, like displaying boxes in a store window. Translate these into drawings and get a building permit from City Hall. (That’s the easy part.) Gather all your friends and relatives to a barbecue party at your vacant lot. Before dessert is served, begin digging the foundation, then hand over the shovel to your contractor who always arrives late. Give him twice the amount of time he estimates it will take him to complete the job. Cut his budget in half by providing the materials yourself: skin for walls, eyes for windows, mouth and ears and orifices for doors, feet for floors, intestines for stairs, eyelids and a head full of hair for awnings and a roof. Then when it finally resembles you, call it home. Otherwise, have it rented out and build another. This poem is part of the collection that won Second Prize for Poetry in the 2006 Palanca Awards |