ODE TO A SMALL WOOD MODEL,
MADE UP OVER THE WEEKEND

SHOU JIE ENG

There is a knot in the model of the first room.

It lives on the west-facing side of the tallest piece of white oak.
The tall piece represents a clerestory. To be precise,

It represents the volume formed by the cutting of the roof plane,
separated and raised up to make a clerestory. To be clear,

a solid model stands in for the void made by the risen plane.
The model is much smaller than the first room, and solid.

It has a knot on the west face of the tallest piece.

The heart of the knot loosened as the oak dried.
(We say seasoned, as if deadening perfected it.)

It fell away before the oak board was jointed, before it was turned
into a room. Now the heart of the room is a void. To be precise,

a half-void, as vacancy does not run through the member.
A semi-void, as vacancy runs through the room.

It makes a knot as it snakes around the first room.

I suppose the heart of any room is a void.
A hemi-void, since there is a rug and couch in the room.

A rug, two couches, and often, children. They play, often,
with the solid model. The tall pieces of white oak. The voids.

Shou Jie Eng is an architectural designer and writer. Originally from Singapore, he runs Left Field Projects, a studio practice located in Hartford, Connecticut. His work has appeared or is forthcoming in Tupelo Quarterly, the Westchester Review, the anthology New Singapore Poetries (Gaudy Boy), and elsewhere. He was a finalist for the 2024 Kenyon Review Poetry Contest, and teaches courses in drawing and representational topics at the Rhode Island School of Design.

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