Kickass and green growth

Kickass, the doorstop dog, takes only casual interest in the keeper’s futile efforts to be the dominant life form on the ridge where his house is located.  It is obvious from this spring’s explosive growth that he—the keeper, is destined to lose out to mulberry, Siberian elm, buckthorn, woodbine, and even poison ivy which had the audacity to make an authoritative point by attacking Phyllis as she exercised her preference for native prairie plants over invasive trash. The speed with which nature works to minimize and erase human manipulation is astounding, and makes the keeper realize that even if he had been foolish enough to establish a lawn on the ridge, that too would disappear within a few years. Lawns are, of course, a manor house pretense that requires incredibly wasteful watering and the application of tons of poison chemicals.  Left alone, lawns would revert to the wild to the benefit of everyone and everything.  That might include a little poison ivy, which would offer an opportunity for the keeper and his ilk to be inventive in helping victims with their itching.