I found a feral child in the yard
while culling weeds and tending
to a dog's grave.
I was surprised to see it cuddled
round the oleander roots
seeding the soil with its toes.
And I, who put the dog down late;
he who shoots the air gun at the cats,
who sprays the crab grass
shoots,
will move the boy, tonight, to
a neighbor's yard, and pinch
his toes into their garden's bed
before he learns his labor's
lost on me.