all conversation is about real estate, this land
and this space, a system local and global.

new subdivisions of ranch-style homes are sprouting where the Sierra Nevada foothills meet the valley floor, covering and re-routing the rocky fields and creeks shaded by oak trees. I left nearly ten years ago, and when I return it is not to the town I left behind.

only the Konkow and the Yana are not recent immigrants

a feeling of nostalgia is endemic to California, and everyone becomes anti-growth the moment they settle down. you can hear residents of Chico describe the perfect size of the town as that which corresponded to the year they moved there, whether 1956 or ‘76 or ‘96.

we move to the garden and precipitate its fall