Property Line
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—say rather, 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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