The Flip Side

The city life begins, and with it
all the intricacies and hesitancies
of the hemmed in world, tendrils
creeping across my mind, thin shadows
unexpected and almost unoticed,
pull ing my mind out gently like
flat-pan taffy, careful not to snap,
but enlarging and taking away the original
instinctive power, the straight-saddled
country leaning folded by repeated submergings
in people, subways, and crowds, home now
a desperate, secret spot of green and quiet
among things that have grown up, around
much too fast.