To build a home

First you would dig the cellar and line it with stone.

There would be shelves for food, and the furnace of course in the place of honor.

Piping and ducting and the base of the chimney, with an ash cleanout.

The windward wall should be stone;

The sunward wall should be glass, as much as you can.

The other two wood, plank siding.

Across the back wall are two bedrooms, two bathrooms.

From the windows to those interior walls will be one large room,

Divided into sitting, snoozing, cooking, eating,

reading, talking, arguing, loving, living, hoping rooms

with the clever use of bookshelves and other territorial markers.

In only a few months it will be clear

Which chair belongs to whom.