What About Us

yank out the crabgrass

nettles spurge and sedges

the hairy bittercress

the oriental bittersweet

your war on weeds

but with each pull

you also kill

the entangled

coneflowers asters

buried spring bulbs

the ones you profess to love

all to restore

back to god’s good order

your paradise of flowers

oil of neem

pulverized seaweed from

the garden center

but no sound

of distant waves

crashing life asunder

moles dig tunnels

through which

your enemies attack

fences don’t stop

migrating seeds

composite edging

won’t halt what’s

crawling under

you know that now

each year a winter landscape

whispers gray words

about what endures

you never listen

you never give

a passing thought

to how we could

have grown together

have grown together