The Designer at Work

I sit upright, eyes open, mouth a straight line.
For just a moment, I close my eyes while I retrieve a file from my memory.
My eyes open again and I look up ever so slightly
as I review the contents of the file.

Some say they can hear, or even see
the wheels inside my head turning.
But I don’t.
Any audible voices or noises are reduced to a murmur.

I wave my hands through the air
as if disassembling it with telekinetic powers.
My mind examines each part
and effortlessly adds tenons and subtracts mortises.

One by one,
I will the parts to reassemble themselves.
It’s complete, and I study its form.
I push and pull parts into proportions that please me.

Piece by piece, I disassemble, then reassemble it,
studying the relationship between each part,
searching for potential problems
and trying to understand how best to build it.

Apart, together. Apart, together. Apart, together.
I repeat this process tens, hundreds, maybe even thousands of times
over the course of days, weeks, months, years, maybe even decades
until I am ready to start building it.