Michigan Fort

by Greg Cotter

We built forts with pieces of scrap lumber
from our fathers,
building sites,
woods and fields.

*

One morning when we got to the field
one of our best forts, three rooms, gone.

Not a sliver of wood left.

Wondered about the Showers boys.

*

Our next plan:
build underground.

We dug a hole
big enough to hold two VW Bugs,
hit water 5 feet down.

Cut shelves in the walls for candles,
plywood to cover,
camouflaged with plants and leaves.

*

Over a half century later
this three-storey condo,

what we wanted in our forts,
running water, electricity, furniture.

It was like 17-year-old Jeremy
using a figure-of-speech I didn’t understand,

“Catch a double, man.”

Each generation preparing for the next fort.