The Fairview Lawns

The Fairview lawns

Belong in magazines

On the covers

Or at least inside

On the very first flap

The Fairview lawns are mowed

Promptly on Sunday

At 7am

While the bacon fries

And the eggs get scrambled

Down in the grass

There are wedding rings

Thrown from windows

Late at night

That no one will ever

See again

There are baby toys

With baby names

Etched into their sides

There are slippers

And sandals

And a note that says--

‘Don’t read this’

And the Fairview lawnmowers
Mow around these things

Not moving any of them

Scared that underneath

There might be something worse

Something deep in the dirt

Past the worms

And the ants

A word with the spit still on it

Or a knife with the blade still sharp

On one of the lawns

There’s a pacifier

That got sucked on twice

And never again

There are patches on each of the lawns

Where nothing will grow

No matter how many gardeners are consulted

Or which fancy lawn products

Are purchased

Some are shaped like tortoises

And some like diamonds

The nicer houses

Have the biggest patches

The biggest spots

Where there’s only dirt

And the occasional triangle of mud

Even when there’s been no rain

The Fairview Lawns are watered

Every day after five am

Even on weekends

Because it’s always dry in Fairview

And if a day goes by without the sprinklers

The grass gets crispy

And brittle

One family went away for a week
And their sprinklers broke

When they came home

They were met with nothing but a desert

In front of their house

Their neighbors had not bothered to water the lawn for them
Even when they saw the grass dying

And the father of the family that had been away

Went around and pissed on all the other lawns

As a way of saying ‘Thanks for nothing’

The Fairview Lawns are only front lawns

No one in Fairview has a backyard

Everything is front and center

On display

For the entire block to see

Lawn ornaments are non-existent

Chairs or fountains

Flamingoes or a snowman
At Christmas time

None of these things

Can be found

On a single Fairview
Front yard

And as such, there are no pools

There are no porches

There is no barbecuing

Fairview Lawns are like Fairview families

Simple, small, and straightforward

Last week, a Fairview mother

Stumbled out onto her lawn

Wearing only a bathrobe

Covered in what looked like

Grease and sand

She wasn’t crying

Or making a fuss

But she fell down on her knees

Right on the line

Where the lawn

Meets the street

And when the hour came

To mow the lawns

The lawnmower went right over her

And nobody said

A word