The Mower’s Alarm Clock

Something comes back up alive.
Not always what you desired,

Probably not, but something
Living fills in for what died.

You may never be able
To keep a fruit tree alive,

Raise flawless grass on a lawn,
Feed hummingbirds while not wasps,

Protect an ecosystem,
Restore the sagebrush desert,

Rebalance old-growth forest,
Reintroduce living reef,

But something weedy returns,
Something invasive breaks out

Or breaks in, follows the fires,
The previous invasions,

Tumbleweed, cheatgrass, loosestrife,
Algal blooms, C. difficile,

Ants, rats, dogs, pigeons, humans.
More humans. We die like flies,

And like flies we generate
Spontaneously from death.

But even when the last fly
Has died, maggotless endling,

Something likely will pop up
Alive. This demon of mine

Won’t be contented until
He has torn apart my mind

To find where he has left my heart.
Every day, I wake up surprised.