Last Home Standing

© Matthew Word Bain

a home surrounded by new neighbors
which, while they have been around now for years,
are relative newcomers to this part of town

who lived here before these brutalist intrusions?
where have they gone, and their families with them?
the inexorable spread of the civilizing force
ever robbing those of the least means
of home and wealth and culture
which are then distributed
among those of the most means
robbing from the poor to give to the rich
no wonder Robin Hood was disliked by the gentry
he was addressing a foundational feature of civilization
an inconvenient truth that applies to all of us who contribute