Weedwhacking Eden by Wred Fright

If the Garden of Eden were in America,
then instead of an angel with a flaming sword guarding it,
there'd be a guy with a weedwhacker having at it.

The Trees of Knowledge of Good and Evil and of Life
would've long ago been sold as Christmas trees,
or chopped up into souvenirs.

The serpent?
He'd have to be a very crafty creature to avoid the lawnmower
making the Garden look like everyone else's yards.

America was supposed to be a new Eden,
but paradise has been lost again,
and this time we can't blame it on Adam and Eve.

It takes years and years for a forest to grow, God knows,
but it only takes men with heavy equipment days to undo it
in an impressive demonstration of the ugliness of efficiency.

Oh, how I miss the frontier;
the taste of wild, sweet fruit;
and dreams of innocence

We put a price on everything, even experience,
so how dear is the fact that there's nowhere new to start over,
and now only ourselves left to destroy?

14 August 2007

(Dedicated to the woods that used to be behind the house I grew up in before the new owner decided to build a house there instead of just buying any one of the dozens of houses for sale in New Castle, Pennsylvania).