The Boys Work on a To-Scale Replica Miniature Model of Robinson Jeffers’s Castle
Tor House and Hawk Tower
on Aaron’s mother’s den floor
and the boys can’t figure how
to hang stones in the sky for Una,
let alone each other, and begin to ask
what did Jeffers hide between the stones
or maybe between the mortar
on his trowel and the same stones
labored up the bluff? Cody whispers
at night after the boys are asleep
and a wolf haunts a stone tower.
Coarse hair splintered or bone
do you remember my father?
He crawls behind the splits
Jeffers tore into the sky.
In day the boys continue to build
for the sake of building: they build
the sheetrock to break just to build again, build
the boot to scuff the wainscoting, build
the fur to hold the howl, build
the floor to cover the earth, build
the cliff to hold the bay
and will wash Una in it, build
the timber to build the tree, build
the post to fall the beam, build
the shoal to carry the seine, build
the boy too weak to worry, build
the rock to tip the rod, build
the boot sole to lift up
and look under, build
the tarp to cover what’s left.
