Yardwork
yardwork
is best left
to people with
yards
and who like to
work in them
I feel a special kind
of guilt
when I turn over
a pile of yellowed leaves
moldy
or a piece of wood
rotting
and startle the slugs
or maggots wriggling
in the sunlight
exposed
vulnerable
naked
I watch the discovered
lizards
slither and
scurry
with
delightful horror
wondering what cracks
they will run to
and so
when the neighbor
jokes
fork-tongued
for me to get
my leaves
from his yard
a clean carpet of
green
invaded by
a salient of red
yellow and
brown
I prefer
to leave them there
like soldiers shot
through the
heart
to lie
where they fall
and to be blown apart
by the winds
about them.
