(silenced)

I am silenced
by loneliness
and neglect,
the same old
spirals I have
fallen down
before.

My abandoned
yard, two trees
growing in one
spot. Seems
like us, the way
you close the shades,
making the room
we share such
a cave, I will
not enter.

I like looking
out at the pepper,
its red berries,
but I know
it will be
sacrificed
for the citrus
everyone deems
more important.

I don’t eat
citrus.
Luckily, we have
a yard full
of it.
A yard where
I won’t go
because it is
unfenced,
dogs run freely
through it
leaving their
waste.

It gets more
and more
out of hand,
escaping any
hope I ever had
for making it
mine.
As everything
seems to
just now.

2/27/99