Bricks

My aloneness washes over me
like a warm friend
with kind words over coffee
Supporting me with ageless friendship

Thoughts spun out in solitude
The road full of welcome detours
idle contemplation, piles of bricks
To see what arrangement builds a home

No time earlier to peer inside a brick
study fissures, examine the aggregate
Speculation among the cracks and crevices
hot from the kiln and cooling in my mind

One laid upon its brother frames a wall
Mortar slowly set and rich with recollection
Some joints struck, others trowelled
A journeyman's hand to hold the blade

If walls close out, they close in as well
Protection from the breath of wolves
Constructing rooms grown soft and warm
where candlelight throws long shadows