A year ago, or a couple of months -
they felt like a dozen because they weighed so much -
there was a knock on my door.
Don't we all get knocks on the door?
Don't we all hear
woodpeckers rap rapturous,
drill little deaths into the tree of life
that signify and effect the fact
that nothing that was will be as before?
Don't we all get knocks on the door?

Haven't we been here before?
Haven't we all put up a fence around our yard
composed of expectations
to keep the peace,
to keep the nation,
then a neighbor
shatters all this
with a word?
Don't we cringe to hear the word?