Friday, July 29, 2022

A Wild Garden comic poem number 151 by Angela Lansbury

 

Two foxes in back garden, apple tree and roses. UK. Photo by Angela Lansbury. 


We used to have a gardener

Who called once a week and moved the lawn

And trimmed rose trees to sensible heights

My machete's an umbrella, I feel prickled and forlorn


A garden is a lovely place

But we've no milk nor honey

Useless trees attract dogs, wasps, bees

Our annual gardener wants too much money


Our garden's full of wild life

Rats, cats, snakes, foxes,birds and bees

Welcome to squirrels - everyone

Except for you and me


But never mind 'cos love is blind

Our pot-holed lawn looks dappled

Only a poet could love a place

Where every worm has an apple.


That broken fence will cost a few pence

Rats feasted on my car engine

Although we spared no expense

The rat poison hasn't yet had a win


A mouse shows guests around our house

The ivy is strangling the gutter

The worms know they will be in for a treat

When we are soon six foot under.


How lucky we are

To have a garden and a house

We have it all, six dead neighbours,

Two sleepy neighbours' cats and an athletic mouse.

-ends-

I meant the cats are sleepy, contrasting with the athletic mouse evading the useless cats. The fox didn't catch the rats. But the phrase 

'sleepy neighbours' cats' was unintentionally ambiguous. The sleepy neighbours, suggests they have wandering cats and straying dogs. 

The large hole was made by the vixen, we think.

The mouse was not in this house, but my late uncle's. Dead in the breadbin. The mouse. Not my uncle. 

We have had six neighbours die in the last decade, at intervals. Two elderly couples. Plus one man. One woman. Not appriate to discuss more here in the footnote to a comic poem. I am hoping to live to 100 you will have a few more comic poems to read. 

My other lighthearted but slightly cynical, entertaining, blogs include travewithangelalansbury.blogspot.coml and dressofthedayangela.blogspot.com

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