Construction Site
Paul Hostovsky
I-beams remind me
of the first person.
And the second person.
I love the bones of you.
Look at that building going up across the street.
The construction workers have spray painted
Esther, Kate, Delilah, Meg,
Rhonda, Cherisse, Chantelle, Sue–
all up and down and across
the huge I-beams of their
magnificent work in progress.
Julia, Lucretia, Veronica, Eve,
Heidi, Cassandra, Sonya, Ruth–
The names of so many
women and girls (and also a few men–
Fong, Steve, Hugh)
at the heart of so many life stories.
And after the concrete gets poured
and the sheetrock and goes up
and all the metal and glass,
and the carpeting goes down
and all the doors get hung,
those names will be in there
forever, written on the very
rib of the creation.
