"garden"

"garden"

toy soldier tulips
colors lined up
like the candy counter
mints here
bubblegum there
surrounded by a tarmac of black mulch
yew and privet and tamed forsythia
clipped to cinder block precision
turrets and defensive walls
lawns like industrial carpeting
rocks painted white to look like quartz
resin cast stones that say "garden"
plastic eyes and wizardly noses nailed to tree trunks
whiskey barrels tipped and buried
miming an accidental spill of flowers
elegantly rusted watering cans
artfully poised
wabi sabi of the hoi polloi