Consider the underbrush
around your home
The tangle that should be cut
to save the trees in case of fire
Been growing for years 
Rome wasn’t built, etc.
This took ages to grow this thick
and underneath
this dark

Consider now your town
The messy underpinnings
of its civic life and how
the citizens long
to smile through it all and
above it all saying
Rome wasn’t built, etc.
Go slow, take time
to consider, etc.

Consider the proximity of history
Consider the new bite of old smoke
Consider the fresh taste of ancient heat 
Rome wasn’t built, etc.
but it burned in a night

Consider that 
the emperor is said
to have played through that
and now consider
the underbrush again
and at last consider
a machete