dVerse Poetics: Border

This is posted for today’s Poetics at dVerse for Grace’s prompt – Border.  I am also posting for the Tuesday Platform at Real Toads.  The links to these pages are:  http://dversepoets.com/2017/08/22/poetics-border/  and  http://withrealtoads.blogspot.com/2017/08/the-tuesday-platform_22.html

Hedges
our small country community consists
of nine houses along the road ending in
a cul-de-sac.
the yards are all separated with thick tall
boxwood hedges –
each of the hedges has a small slip through
in case a neighbor wants to borrow a cup of sugar
or to take a neighbor some peaches
or for kids to go through playing hide and seek.
dogs and cats wander at will in the community
shimmying through the hedges
always going home for lunch and dinner and sleep.
snakes, birds, rabbits, deer, frogs, turtles, raccoons –
they all work their way through the tangled branches
or use the greenery for nesting.
So the hedges do nothing except define property
and back here in our small country community,
That doesn’t really matter.

32 Comments (+add yours?)

  1. Victoria C. Slotto
    Aug 22, 2017 @ 15:29:25

    That wonderful feel of rural communities and friendship with neighbors. We are only half-rural, a block from a river, horses across the street but a great, supportive neighborhood.

    Reply

  2. whippetwisdom
    Aug 22, 2017 @ 15:41:40

    A neighbourhood without borders sounds wonderful 💜

    Reply

  3. erbiage
    Aug 22, 2017 @ 16:44:37

    Charming!

    Reply

  4. alisonhankinson
    Aug 22, 2017 @ 16:44:41

    I like your borders they create some sense of personal identity but don’t get in the way.

    Reply

  5. hypercryptical
    Aug 22, 2017 @ 17:40:25

    This sounds a wonderful place to live – borders without borders.
    Anna :o]

    Reply

  6. Susie Clevenger (@wingsobutterfly)
    Aug 22, 2017 @ 18:02:12

    Oh, that is my kind of hedge.

    Reply

  7. coffeecatspoetry
    Aug 22, 2017 @ 18:20:38

    Loving that line about the animals ‘shimmying through the hedges’ 🙂 My cats shimmy everywhere they go!

    Reply

  8. ManicDdaily
    Aug 22, 2017 @ 21:20:53

    Super sweet, love the description of all those passages. K.

    Reply

  9. thotpurge
    Aug 22, 2017 @ 21:27:23

    The joy of rural communities.. can’t imagine having a place for the neighbour to slip through in the city!!

    Reply

  10. Jim
    Aug 22, 2017 @ 23:30:17

    We’ve lived in places like that. This one sort of but none have hedges. A lot more fences here than the earlier one.
    I liked your writing, it seemed all the characters were scurrying to you, making sure they would make the poem.
    ..

    Reply

  11. Rosemary Nissen-Wade
    Aug 23, 2017 @ 01:30:23

    How wonderful that such a place still exists!

    Reply

  12. Sanaa Rizvi
    Aug 23, 2017 @ 05:29:43

    This is so charming!❤️

    Reply

  13. georgeplace2013
    Aug 23, 2017 @ 06:01:35

    We can all have borders (hedges) and still have open arms. Love your poem

    Reply

  14. kim881
    Aug 23, 2017 @ 07:25:51

    I like hedges, especially those that grow into their own shapes and defy landowners! Some have holly in them, and in spring hawthorn blossoms like a bride They’re friendlier than walls and fences, and creatures live in them. The lines:
    ‘each of the hedges has a small slip through
    in case a neighbor wants to borrow a cup of sugar…’
    remind me of The Smpsons, when Homer slips through the hedge into Ned’s garden!

    Reply

  15. Sherry Marr
    Aug 23, 2017 @ 20:09:34

    It sounds lovely, peaceful and friendly.

    Reply

  16. Magaly Guerrero
    Aug 23, 2017 @ 21:11:44

    “each of the hedges has a small slip through
    in case a neighbor wants to borrow a cup of sugar
    or to take a neighbor some peaches”

    I love what those three lines represent, and the addition at the end… the sharing of the real meaning of the hedges. I needed this today (I think most of us need this) after listening to the news.

    Thank you… so very much.

    Reply

  17. Vinitha
    Aug 24, 2017 @ 00:47:22

    What a beautiful imagery! Fell in love with the community described. 🙂

    Reply

  18. Margaret Elizabeth Bednar
    Aug 28, 2017 @ 13:56:45

    Sounds completely charming!

    Reply

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