Wesleyan University - Olla Podrida Yearbook (Middletown, CT)

Page 10 text:

What You Want You want something you hold in your hand. You want something you lift to the sun That keeps the sun behind it. A two-by-four. say. You can build a house with that. You can make a lever of that. A lever that will never move the world frOm anywhere But will lift that stone out of the dirt from here. And you can build your foundation. You can build. say. a Fire. and the hre will burn you. You hold in your hands, hard, at two-by-four, And it keeps the sun behind it. You are tired. Think Of the two-by-fours that hold up your roof. And it keeps the sun behind it. You are tired. Think That-God is a small man in a warehouse Who does not- love the trees but loves The Stacks he has built against the walls. The piies. towers. cities. ranks Of freshacut. 'hard-cut two-by-fours he stocks In the dusty. sweet-smelling light. God is a man With a table saw. He covered with sawdust. He is getting ready To build the world. Ask him For however many you need. He will show you your stack. He will give it to you. Take it. Use These two-by-fours to build your house. Hang your poems On them. Feel the wood the world is made of. Build Elizabeth C. Zsiga