This Land

In 1958 or ’59 when I was sixteen
I came up with the idea
of replacing my parents’ back yard
with a Japanese garden—
this in a middle-class neighborhood
of Tulsa, Oklahoma.
I even showed a design to my mother,
who tried to…

Again I slid up over the horizon
and the lights of Tulsa spread flat out before me.
“Ah, there you are,” I said,
“like a porch light left on
for almost thirty years.”

“Don’t get carried away,
Ron. Yes, the lights are on for you…