He may be a plum-stealer and oddball wheelbarrow enthusiast, but he seems also to have a heartbreakingly romantic understanding of just what claiming and protecting seemingly valueless property is all about.
From The Poor, by WCW (in The Complete Collected Poems, 1906-1938)
...
Chimneys, roofs, fences of
wood and metal in an unfenced
age and enclosing next to
nothing at all; the old man
in a sweater and soft black
hat who sweeps the sidewalk --
his own ten feet of it
in a wind that fitfully
turning his corner has
overwhelmed the entire city
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