The first man who,
having fenced in a piece of land, said, 'This is mine,'
and found people naïve enough
to believe him,
that man was the true founder
of civil society.
~ Rousseau
AGAINST LAWN
The midnight streetlight illuminating
the white of clover assures me
I am right not to manicure
my patch of grass into a dull
carpet of uniform green, but
to allow whatever will to take over.
Somewhere in that lace lies luck,
though I may never swoop down
to find it. Three, too, is
an auspicious number. And this seeing
a reminder to avoid too much taming
of what, even here, wants to be wild.
— Grace Bauer
from Lake Effect, Volume 8, Spring 2004
Poetry Garden
