Looking for a Tract

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LOOKING FOR A TRACT


Hard to find a good hill to die on 

these days, a good tract of the real


on which to make your estate,

what with the rate of construction 


so intent on leveling it all in the name

of affordable sub-developments.

In theory, you just want a place

to call your own, an old oak like a pin


making clear that You Are Here

and shading the spot where a headstone 


will survey the clearing of your belief.

You want roots so deep you trail dirt


on your trips through town, a tenet

so immovable that when the bulldozers


come they'll have to mow you

down. And when you really get down


to it, it could be more than theory, 

but in this current economy you’d need


to move pretty far out to afford

such conviction, likely even putting 


some miles between you and your

welfare, maybe even family and friends,


which is where—for most of us—

the conversation stutters, concedes,


never really beginning, never utterly at end

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