Arbor

I almost never clean my glasses
the correct way and I admit
that they are not now
what they used to be.
I used to see so far and read
the signs without the money
to be bigger on such old paper
they would always slowly fade.
A neighbor sprayed the bird shit
off her garden statues with an old hose
she could barely keep control of.
Like some old myth she
had been wrestling a snake.
I always stole a couple pears
from her front tree
when I was passing by
on my side of the fence
where there was nothing growing
other than the shade.
I wasn’t afraid that she’d
say anything.
I think she noticed it before
and wasn’t worried
because she knew
that I was hungry,
and there was nothing
in those nutrients
quite like the knowledge
of the fact they weren’t mine.