I didn’t mind
when alleged civil liberties
were trampled
to stop indoor smoking in New York.
For years
every single club you could find
would be smoke-filled
and soon enough
you were as well.
I never got too upset
being able to breathe indoors.
It seemed a pleasant change
that became a delightful enough norm.

I wasn’t bothered
when the squeegee men began to disappear.
They offered a service
I did not much care for
and felt much better off
with their absence.

When they started cutting out parking in Manhattan,
though,
I realized the danger
of quality of life improvements
in my city.

Anything else done
to make anything better
from now on
has to go through me.