THE EVOLVING CITY Mark Fitzgerald BUILT TO CODE For all its stark geometry the blinds suppress a tenderness. The stairs are where you put them, but less than what was climbed. Refuge rescued from remorse, these walls tore down trees, the majesty of natural canopy, the blue jay’s perch. It will take time to bring the outside in, unravel the carpets, brighten walls, finish the deck. Time to avoid the neighbors. And why not a pergola above the front entrance? A roof garden over the garage? What do you surmise? A fence? Why, yes, a fence replete with recrimination, a gate before beds of black-eyed Susans, your gaze.     Mark Fitzgerald is the author of Distracting the Rain, a collection of poems. His work has appeared in Crab Creek Review, Squaw Review, Poetry Midwest, and Parting Gifts. He earned his MFA from George Mason University and has studied in Strasbourg, France and Oxford, England. He lives in Falls Church, Virginia and teaches writing at Strayer University. Published in Volume 8, Number 4, Fall 2007.