We Reap
Perhaps we can’t love more than one thing well.
All day that noisy beast, his mower, blows.
He drags it across the green, consigns to hell
a clump of crab grass. How constantly it grows,
how stubbornly his front yard swells.
All day, my neighbour’s son watches, while below
on hands and knees, grazing like gazelle,
his father makes his perfect lawn a vow.
Perhaps we only love one thing full well,
but as he passes, each blade kneels and bows.
Damen O’Brien is a multi-award-winning Australian poet. Damen’s prizes include The Moth Poetry Prize, the Peter Porter Poetry Prize and the Newcastle Poetry Prize. His poems have been published in New Ohio Review, Aesthetica, Arc Poetry Journal and elsewhere. Damen’s latest book is Walking the Boundary (Pitt Street Poetry, 2024).