A toast for the neighbors
Let us raise high the mint
overtaking our flowerbeds
and toast our neighborhood icons:
Cheers to you, red brick cottage abutting the Baptist church!
May the six plastic, pre-pandemic Halloween skeletons crawling up your chimney never fall
and the whole geodes lining your sidewalk never crack open.
Cheers to you, white ranch across the street!
May your flamingo mailbox withstand all future storms of wind or rain or ice
and the flock ever find nourishment in the gravel beneath your windows.
And cheers to you, gray bungalow down the block!
May the two life-sized, cherry-red concrete pigs on your front porch step never fade
and remind us all to guard the individual inside.
Cheers!