Trimming Privets

The more she trimmed and hacked

away at the Privets dividing two

pieces of property—hers from her

neighbor’s—the more she wanted

to trim.  The more she pruned,

the more she questioned what,

exactly, they were providing

privacy for, or from?  They stood

twelve, fifteen, eighteen feet tall between

an un-used piece of her neighbor’s yard

fronting an alley and the wall to her

own garage—cinder block walled,

private enough.  She hauled out both

ladders, a long-handled tree trimmer,

a hand pruner, rakes, leaf bags.

Every cut was a quick decision –

Don’t need you! You’re out! Too tall,

too intrusive, too brittle, too little, too

low-to-the-ground, too tangled in vine,

too in my face, too in my way,

too hampering of the swing

of the chain link fence gate.

Snip—

             Snip—

                          Snip—

without remorse or sympathy.

There, she said, hours later—

we’re done.  See if you can make

a better showing next Spring.