What We Once Had…..

Someone built it there, it was there,
just south of highway 17.
Where the new double lane begins,
right before development takes over,
that monolith of windows.

Where what was once a modest house,
has since gone the way of progress.
It was not much more than 1,000 SF.
It never got anywhere close to fancy.
Just a small house with a second bedroom,
Cheap aluminum siding with a window
glaring from the kitchen and a front door
pulled shut on any hope of a future.

Yards from River Road, like a single die
rolled out and left where it stopped,
and more than a few pines pushed up
that worked their way up along-side,
towering over the roof, and the gravel
driveway which once led in, now, filled
with high weeds.

I suppose the house was demolished, but if you or
I were to step over that yellow wooden barrier with its
white flag of surrender knotted dead center, we might find
that part of ourselves left behind by someone
left behind, enough to show what we once had.

Money

Developers grin.
Zoning laws bend.
Bulldozers rumble.
Money.
Environmental reviews
rubber-stamped,
Money.
Trees fall.
Dirt moved.
Wetlands paved over.
Money.
Fields once pastoral,
now sprouting rows of duplexes,
rural character lost.
Money.
Money.
Money.