Brick

Brick

Where is the first place on your body
to show weight loss,
a woman selling gym memberships once asked me.
Because that will help us determine
your body type.

So what goes away first is the way in,
the structure’s cipher.

After years of ice storms and temporary thaws,
the brick in the basement is crumbling,
though it seems dry enough.
There is a logic to this spalling.
Buried somewhere in the walls:
a leak, the weakest part
of the house letting in water.

An ankle trembles
long after the ligament remodels itself.
Because it belongs to a runner
who tends to turn her left foot in slightly.

That thing which is ready to be offered up
under pressure,
it is lifted with wavering hands.

Every form can be toppled,
is inherently unsound.