Front Garden

poetry
Published

November 20, 2023

a stillness encased
by leaves and bark

shading the battalion
columns marching up

towering cinderblock cliffs
reinforced battlements

overlook warring forests
of dill and mint and chives

thick with buzzing fragrance
an idyll unsheared unmoored

picketed by peeling paint
asphalt rubber plastic rust

ours and now ownerless again