If Then

If I nuke the privet hedges

          saturate the leaves with killing poison,

so that the bushes will no longer grow –

can I then expect

the wintering white-crowned sparrows

          who sing from the tangled fencerows,

to  find some other place to go?

If I bulldoze the giant green bamboo,

          mangle its roots to  lifeless pulp

so that it disappears from all but memory –

can I then expect

          the robins who roost there,

to find some other safe place to sleep?

If I  make the ecology here all native again,

          remove all the things

born someplace else that do not belong –

can I then expect

          the politicians who twiddle their thumbs there,

to stop dropping bombs on children’s heads

          wherever they might be?

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