The Succulent Growth

At the side of the driveway, its round waxy leaves provide a low border between pavement and the rough bark at the base of the oak tree that buckles the asphalt a little more each year. It requires little, subsisting on filtered sunlight and the meager fertility and structure provided by last year’s fallen leaves, ignored by the renter busy inside with the tasks he no longer understands, following them only out of the knowledge that in previous months they have resulted in just enough credits in his account to keep the landlord from the door. Its roots make the soil, providing thin cover for the long-legged bird that stalks in the darkness outside, ready to swallow him alive like a frog unable to keep itself from complying with the gravity of its eager throat.