Front yards

You want a house on the edge of town

land enough for a garden, chickens and guinea hens

You want a screened porch to keep mosquitoes at bay

and a stately oak tree to day dream under

You want a nice cafe and coffee shop to walk to

an independent book store next to the public library

You want a town of artists, actors, healers, musicians

writers, poets and yoga taught in public schools

You want to look out your bedroom window at mountains

feel an ocean breeze and see a beach from your kitchen door

You want it to be spring twelve months a year and

all your mother’s favorite flowers growing along a picket fence

You want smiling policemen stopping you just to say hello

peaceful neighborhoods without drive by shootings

a city free of misogyny, roofies, rape and gender fear

You want safe front yards where six year old little girls can play

(for little Fay Swetik – may she be bathed in seas of shimmering light)

2-14-20