that play fort tent she’d tried and tried
to build, never did work

she’d drape sheets as walls over the playroom table
anchor them with masking tape and books
sit smiling in a five year-old’s first clubhouse

then the roof would slip down
she’d fix it; another side would fall down, making it
lopsided; she'd tack it back on, then
the other side would go
trying other tables, other rooms
fits of tears her only result

as a middle-aged woman, she found the blueprints
for yet another try
at love
embraced building again, with a partner this time
tacking down the conviction of a perfect fit
but early on their sheets kept getting yanked down
the top one first, which they tried to fix, then one side, then all of them

another fort that would not hold
she gave up architecture

02/07/2004