We say ourselves fortunate to be driving by today.
In these lines at the end of the first stanza, Brooks sets the poem's tone with the first of the subtle, sarcastic barbs that she plants throughout the poem. The speaker and their passengers may say that they feel lucky just to be in Beverly, but there is a phoniness in their reverence of the area that barely veils their true feelings of resentment for those who have more than them, simply by chance. This understated resentment is crystallized in the final lines of the poem.
Even the leaves fall down in lovelier patterns here. / And the refuse, the refuse is a neat brilliancy.
Here the speaker observes that even the trash in Beverly is arranged neatly on the curb. There is an aesthetic power that the wealth of the area exerts on the environment that makes it seem like even nature acquiesces to the residents' wishes.
Nobody is furious. Nobody hates these people. / At least, nobody driving by in this car.
These immediate turn that happens between these lines is a clue that the reader may not be able to take everything the speaker says at face value. There is a huge difference between the idea that nobody is furious and nobody hates these people versus the assurance that at least nobody in this car hates these people. The turn between these lines suggests, subtly, that many people are furious and do probably hate the residents of Beverly for having so much, while others have so little.
We do not want them to have less. / But it is only natural that we should think we have not enough.
This is the third and final instance of the phrase "it is only natural" in the poem, and the repetition of the phrase underscores the obviousness of the socioeconomic disparities present between the residents of Beverly and working-class communities in Chicago. In every instance of its use, the phrase "it is only natural" refers to the speaker and their passengers observing the differences in their lot versus the people of Beverly, and the word "natural" draws attention to how unnatural the wealth gap is.
