Property Line

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PROPERTY LINE

And so, having taken from them

the soil and given only clay 


in return, returning every year 

come whatever meager harvest 


they still managed to grow

to reap the fat portion as payment


to re-pave a road going somewhere

they never wanted to go, and


leaving them just this yard, a shrinking

soul, and any semblance of control


they can yet convince themselves 

they still retain, who then is to blame 


if they—another way of saying we—

walk out in our bathrobes to watch each other


mow the middle strip or post a fence?

It’s not to be that neighbor. It's just


that there are stakes here, and far

more than a few feet on the line.


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