Self-Portrait as Construction Site

as in progress

as behind schedule, orange cones

hard hat, as gauntlet, as majestic do not enter

back up the truck

dump dirt

where’s my tower, where’s my cable

let’s get the measurement down there

as boss I just clocked in

as we’ll build together

this structure will rise

out of this dirt así

& you’ll be here

for how many days

no we don’t work

at night, it’s silent then

you can hear the wind

through unfinished

window panes through

wide unfilled doorframes

still      undergone

Nicholas Reiner is an American poet of Mexican heritage. His work appears in Spillway, Aquifer, Fourteen Hills, Connotation Press, and Borderlands: Texas Poetry Review. He holds degrees from Stanford University and the University of California, Irvine, where he completed an MFA. He is Director of Communications at the Anti-Recidivism Coalition (ARC) and lives in Los Angeles, CA with his wife and daughter.