For The Girl In The Shelter Poem by Jacqui Thewless

Brick by brick
we are building a future
with our own hands -

this is not easy:
we have not been trained;
our ground’s un-
even and our spirits re-
fuse the equilibrium
of rest;

at best,
no one
will kick us
out of the place we’ve made,
at worst
our future -
like our past -
will shake
and that will be that.


At any rate,
no unwelcome rat-a-tat at
a door
will close us in.

Meanwhile,
this
picking up of bricks,
this
careful placement of
impossible storeys

makes up our Life-
story.
Our house
is
lifted
up in our hands.