Private Property – KEEP OUT

The homeowners voted for a wooden gate
secured with a combination lock
to close off the walkway to the beach
between the condos.
Private property – KEEP OUT
the riff-raff – the kids who lived
across the street, the family
renting up the block who drove
twenty hours from Kenosha
to be near the ocean.
Children ran shrieking to greet the sea,
bodies on blankets breathed deep
with peace, but first juggled
lounge chairs and coolers, babies
on hips and fishing gear
to manipulate the gate.
Not satisfied, they locked the ocean side
too. A heart attack on the sand
and the EMTs battered the boards down.
Never been replaced,
although a year later, the same folks
who voted for it refuse to wear masks
around town to keep out
the coronavirus. It infringes
on their freedom.