A yellow notice on the gate with bold letterhead states
Noxious Weed Commission and then, in smaller red print, declares:
Demand Notice to Remove Thistle.
This notice is a sudden smack behind the noggin.
Bringing attention to a purple, spiky blossom
on top of an orb wound tightly around a ball of seeds,
swaying in the breeze and heeding this question:
What did you do?
To make the County use its bureaucratic might
and declare thistle plants a blight, a public nuisance
worthy of persecution. And any resistance will cause
an appearance before a judge who'll levy
fines and imprisonment.
What did you do?
Shock begins to wane and reason filters into the brain;
this thistle, that goats devour like its a treat,
it explodes into a cotton suite that birds
use to build a soft nest and squirrels
a cozy den for all their kin.
Is this order just about the plants by the gate,
or does it include plants used by bees,
or the plants that...
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