I once tended a garden,
A joy for all to see,
Where strangers, friends, and family were all so close to me.
In sun it was a rainbow,
In rain it was the sun,
The blooms gleamed white in moonlight when day was finally done.
I planted sweet red roses,
Sunflowers grew so tall,
And green leaves whispered shyly as they fluttered over all.
But one night in late summer,
The air a biting nip,
Some vandals stormed the garden and began to stamp and rip.
Replanting in the morning,
I met concern with mirth,
For gardens are by nature prone to healing and rebirth.
The vandals returned nightly,
And churned up all the soil.
I pondered while fence-building why such beauty some despoil.
They chopped through the new fences,
They roared while stomping round,
The police when called found nothing but near-lifeless muddy ground.
Cameras were placed slyly,
The mob just tore them down,
In daylight people gathered from all over the shocked town.
In sunshine neighbours offered
To lend a helping hand,
In moonlight though the vandals tore across the shattered land.
In despair I decided
My garden I must save,
And rake in hand I stood my ground, awaiting the fierce wave.
I saw the tide gathering,
A great wild stormy thing,
A host of howling hoodlums, vile cruel shanties they did sing.
But as they charged the fences,
A thought entered my head,
That no one without reason seeks to make a garden dead.
Struck down I was with dawning,
The mob around me roiled,
I looked up at the place where once for beauty I had toiled.
These vandals have no garden,
No flowers do they tend,
No peaceful path through birch trees do they wander at day’s end.
Loud voices then did tell them,
Injustice keeps them down,
And the gardener down the street may as well just wear a crown.
So burn the foul red roses,
Drag down the leering tree,
Only once there is no beauty can the world at last be free.
At last I came to understand,
That with the mob comes power,
And raising high my rake I turned and struck down my own flower.
I once tended a garden,
A blight for all to see,
But now it is all ashes and no vandals bother me.
Ishneich 