Tracking Lawn Enforcement

I used to think those paper snowflakes we cut out in kindergarten were actual size, then wondered why I never saw one.

Scissors were just a metaphor, why picket-fence paper dolls holding hands were so easily cut from the peaceful protest of friendship’s perimeter.

Years later I read some magazine article about sweatshops and wondered why those teachers needed us to make those snowflakes.

I wanted to know what countries were in the market for winter.

Where in the world would demand cold weather simulated for lack-of-supply’s sake, bought just because it could be sold?

Then I figured out school was just probationary, a trial period to single out those better suited to enter the workforce, as our “foremen” sent performance memos home to our parents.

And the hinges on those scissors were just latches on the gates where the weakest, unoiled aspects of our union could creak open for mailmen to walk safely across the freshly cut grass and reach those boxes.

And that’s maybe why shoveling became a law—

Otherwise they couldn’t deliver without leaving a print.