i don't know if
this is a poem and
don't really care.
i've been attacking
the boston ivy,
the blackberry
creepers barbed
around the old pear
tree with my mom's
longhandled clippers.
horrors! what i
thought was the trunk
of the pear tree
turned out to be
the monster jade
plant from mars,
its spongy segmented
limbs surrounding
the fruit tree like
a garish ruffle, dis-
turbingly easy to
decapitate. Not like
the tangle of vines. No
epiphany to show for
all this work, i'm
in my lizard brain;
although later, pouring
myself a glass of
water i notice that
my hands are shaking
from all the effort.
