Love Song: I and Thou

Nothing is plumb, level or square...

Nothing is plumb, level or square: the studs are bowed, the joists are shaky by nature, no piece fits any other piece without a gap or pinch, and bent nails dance all over the surfacing like maggots. By Christ I am no carpenter. I built the roof for myself, the walls for myself, the floors for myself, and got hung up in it myself. I danced with a purple thumb at this house-warming, drunk with my prime whiskey: rage. Oh I spat rage's nails into the frame-up of my work: It held. It settled plumb. level, solid, square and true for that one great moment. Then it screamed and went on through, skewing as wrong the other way. God damned it. This is hell, but I planned it I sawed it I nailed it and I will live in it until it kills me. I can nail my left palm to the left-hand cross-piece but I can't do everything myself. I need a hand to nail the right, a help, a love, a you, a wife.