Shou Jie Eng

Our Building Remembers

:             wood beam, supple
like spine. mornings
when your arm bears
on mine, your fingers
tracing ellipses between us,
pointing over

:             our backs know
the faces of timber posts
made impressionable
by each other’s lean. press
of cheek by palm, folding
of elbows into unfilled divots

:              between faces, fillets
softening with wear and time,
remembering the way
a building does. mortised gaps
track shoulders of tenons, floors
bear marks of cast-iron feet

:              compressed, a post
bends. you bend, compressing
you pull on me, bending
about our axis. about
our centroidal axis. comfort
lies in knowing your grain

:            outlet of breath
when you tend
               beyond the heads
                                              of windows

:               a sill, your hands                                               
                                              reversed—