In honor of John Pijewski.
The unskimmed walls drip with lucid caulk.
Recovered hearthstones await assembly in unlit basements.
What light is given by a crystal lamp of glass shards?
What flowers can open their petals in a porcelain vase hewn from rubble?
No contractor can disentangle
What must not be discarded from what cannot be repaired.
Most of the house survived the quakes.
But doors are hung to respect privacy,
Section off a sunken floor, a ceiling that lost its gypsum angels.
There is no storage for some heirlooms.
Andy Oram
January 6, 2022