Fence: a Definition

1. A barrier intended to prevent escape or intrusion or to mark a boundary, the T-post-and-hogwire our neighbor put up flush against the common one-lane road – no shoulder, no turnouts. (If you break down, you’re up against the fence.) 2. a receiver of stolen goods, one of those faceless men who, in the dark of night, could unload pickups full of our neighbor’s stereo and hard-drive and everything else that makes life worthwhile. (He says, That’s why we need the fence.) 3. as a verb, to ward off, as he hopes to keep felons off his property. (Let them leave us alone, he says, and rip off people without fences.) 4. to practice fencing, to parry arguments by shifting ground. (We need a fence, he says, to hold what’s ours together.)