When Our Eyes Meet

Photo

My neighbors care about landscaping

and brunch on Saturday mornings

A row of bald cypresses on 34th

A whiff of bacon in the morning

then brownies or is it a chocolate cake?

 

The homeowners’ kingdom is not complete

without thieves — they gorge on the pumpkins

then run off into the manicured landscape

 

One day a gaze from the black, glossy eyes

a squirrel on a tower of cypress branches

frozen in motion staring at me

has me stop under the tree and return his gaze

 

A moment when a creature asserts its presence

out of a contrived homogeneity.