"BECAUSE I SAID SO"

"because i said so,"
said the Building Inspector
who failed us on the framing
for reasons nowhere found
in the Fulton County Builders Code Book

the structural engineer flourished
reams of straightedged formulas
lectured about loads
and hurricanes that never come

"because i said so,"
he said again

Rocco the plumber insisted
shit runs downhill
but he had already been paid

Ace, the framer, contemplates
sixteen pennies square
in the inspector's brain

Mr. Budley the home buyer
teaches philosophy for money
but he's deeply astonished
at the real
and reluctant to say so

all of us standing there
crammed in one undone room

assuming perfectly
the postures of confrontation
by the book
strictly to code

we stood in the sawdust
it smelled raw fresh
and slightly dangerous

like all raw ends of civilization
crammed in one undone room

 

by the boy poets, courtesy of the aesthetic poetron converter