Grass

Long.
Neglected
Often I look out
and pity it

but I am never moved
to trim it
comb it
brush away the knots of twigs
and auburn leaves
or the berried bunches clumped
in anemic green.

This seems an infringement
on its rights:
to tame it like a rebel
chop away appendages of
the sprawling organism
kill what doesn't conform.

I find its wildness
attractive
its limit-bursting ferocity
revolutionary.
It has spunk, gusto–
cherishing dominion over
the tortured gardner.

Now
long neglected
it rampages its own territory–
chokes itself.