Dissolving window bars with its clowning,
The feathery leaves and branches dance through winter and summer
Hosts birds and squirrels decked with red berries at the Yuletide
Though cut back aggressively by yard maintenance it confounds by rebounding
Expressing abundance, assuring me privacy, deep mysterious viridian center and yellow green tips
I take my chair and sit, it waves out to caress me, its curious tiny monkey hands fingering,
No yard can restrain, no iron palings fence it,
It lives with exuberance, gaiety, feisty, adamant, rooted on its stage,
It cannot break off its lease and depart.
I imagine its roots behind my walls where the level of my home is below that of the ground,
It could be reaching for me—I could be reaching for it,
It has as much below as it has above,
While I am mobile, transient, much less tactile, much more restrained, much less color coded,
Much less human.