Taking Back the Chiminea

This time of year someone took back the chiminea

Removing it surreptitiously from a backdoor step

It was not legally theft nor could it have been certainly trespassing.

The act was simply a line drawn and a message,

“You have it all now, honey, but I take this.

You can't have anything ever again from me

That isn't yours to take.”

Janice beyond the pearly gates is still reminding us

Nothing left to lose is freedom

Freedom to choose

The road less traveled, the loneliest

But scenery there is the wildest

The elements and winds so rare and raw

The creatures strange and ethereal

The sounds and the grounds are oddly familiar,

Well-worn paths and detailed log books abound

Vigilant eagles, auguring crows and obstacle bears go around

Animals of flight, beasts of night and holders of the ground

Gather when they will, for no law holds them down

The mischievous, frivilous, curious, the imperiled

The breath-drinkers and bloodthirsty living on smell

Or living in flesh and bone, respond to the knell

Before them heaping delicacies and with primal scenes

We foil and abet, wagering with scraps

To buy our full-course meal,

Crowded amongst the living, inviting forthwith the dead

Haunting stony hollows and sagging roofs that barely live

Circling at dusk tracing the breadth and width of the mound

Holding the promise of whatever full abides
In the forgotten vow of legions.