here the air
we breath
burns lightly
just a hint
miles of fire
rages hot
each hotter
year at the mercy
of the wind
changing directions
and it chokes
thick in lungs
seeing no sky
brown red sun
diffuse oven
thick hot
with all
consumed
and only ash
to breathe

the city agent
   told me
the city will take
a chunk of the field
to expand the roads
for the good of everyone
complete with sidewalks
   and compensate me
justly for my non-choice
if i only agree to it

what of the dogs? and
the fence that holds them
back from the speedy cars?

we will give you a new fence
even taller than this
and stronger too - they
had answers for everything
and good answers too

and today the agent returned
telling me of his engagement
so young and so happy and so
strangely wise for his age

he wanted to tell me in person
   everyone liked
the clarity of my concerns
and showed me how each is fixed

it's such an odd feeling
when great power accommodates
willing to listen, clarify and
   bind their own hands
a feeling of a little pride
or even love for a community
i rarely am aware around me

which somehow has caused me
to feel honored to contribute
   what i can do
even under the softest gunpoint

what chance brings us
wandering from the wild
   always searching
to fill a need by chance
encounters rummaging through
the stumbled-upon trinket,
bit or blob sure to satisfy
out from the larger gardens
to the smaller of another's
or anything that might be it
as the doe-eyed wanderers do