Invasive

Every morning, we watch for new leaves  
poking up through a box we've filled 
with soil and encased in chicken 
coop wire. Outside this small raised bed
and the few pots lining one side of the deck,
the strip between our house and the next 
overflows with bittercress, chickweed,
field bindweed, dandelion, filaree.
But honeybees come back when we leave 
the weeds to prosper, when we leave 
clover to velvet the lawns. White cabbage
butterflies flutter like small, loose
shingles among tips of wild violet.