Pickets

Pickets of the sturdy fence resemble 

the white keys of a piano, amounting 

to fifty-nine percent of the total 

eighty-eight, here a straight wooden row meant 

to protect home and field, meanwhile sages 

seated in stone preserve and perhaps uphold 

what we may tell ourselves equals thinking, 

three seated bodies erect and facing 

forward beyond uniform shoulders distant 

from melodies that might sound from a white row 

that resists darkness perceived as a threat 

to safety as the predictable row 

keeps out the slightest thought of invasive 

species that might pluck away what we own.