The Only Thing I Have Left to Lose

is my bedroom, which is

where I’m sitting now

on the living room couch next to 

Mike, who’s now sitting

on his red chair with ottoman

next to my red chair with ottoman

& our cardboard box

(Quara Malbec)

side tables 
while any minute now (they said 3 PM

but it’s nearly 4) the granite workers 

will trim the side overhangs 

off two kitchen countertops

(stone dust everywhere)

in order to make room

for the new stove

which will replace

the wrong stove, which 

they purchased 

because they didn’t look 

at the photo we sent immediately 

after they asked if we minded if 

they bought our stove

at a different store than the store 

where we found it. 

(Claro que no estaba la misma cocina.) 

Meanwhile, a tiler 

is tiling the shower while 

painters putty & paint

while landscapers place plants while 

carpenters hang fiberglass screen (which
they miraculously found

after they said they couldn’t, after 

they tried plastic screen 

(mierda), then metal

which they painted black because

silver reflected the sun but 

installation caused the paint to crack 

& peel), all this happening at once

while El Jefe (who is here 

only because finally

I took Jeremy’s advice, 

stamped my foot & explained 

that no workers could work on our job

without an onsite on-the-job 

jefe-ing Jefe) jefes.

That went over like a wet fart.

El Jefe grabbed his workers & left

but the next day, they all

came back. Work is getting done 

while I sit in my bedroom 

qua living room (sala)

& wonder 

why I ever thought I needed more

than a one-room house.