Emerald Garden
By Christopher Ferguson

There once was a man who had a design
A planet of Eden just like a shrine
Though this was no garden or nature and grass
But rather an artwork of diamond and glass

Ten feathered tulips and five copper gnomes
A concrete fountain and whispering dome
A ruby sun and a crystal sky
Nothing will live, nothing will die

Amethyst lilies with amber enclosed
Malachite petals on a sapphire rose
Fiberglass tress and apples of jade
Pearl dandelions and an emerald cascade

There were no animals or wet drops of rain
Everything perfect, not even a stain
Though it was gorgeous like a hummingbird kiss
There was something not right, something amiss

It was lifeless and cold and artificially sour
It was empty of love and the aroma of flowers
A madhouse of pyrex, an aquarium of steel
It was not beautiful because it wasn’t rea
l


Return to Polis 2009