At all costs
I must repress
The constant wish
That round this garden fair
Would stand
A high wall
O’er which no wanton
Louts nor stray cats
Could climb;
Or that the gates
With chain and lock
Be sealed post-noon
‘Gainst all save nature lovers
Who harm not life
Nor earth pollute
With bloated plastic bags,
Which on the bushes
Get impaled
And suffocate the ponds.
Why so?
To let this wish
Take root within
Would merely nurture
The fatal lie
That Eden still exists.
Jerusalem
13 May 1992