The Garden of Helen de GruesA Poem by David Lewis PagetShe’d
bought the old McWilliams place In
the Valley of Compère, After
McWilliams hanged himself In
an orgy of despair, The
Banks were ripe to foreclose on him When
his stocks went through the floor, And
he shot and wounded the bailiff Nailing
the notice to his door. She
got the place for a snap, they said, Knocked
down to the only bid, The
neighbours went to the auction just To
see what the stranger did, One
finger up at the starting price And
she stared the sniggers down, A
South American beauty, she Was
new to our border town. The
weather was hot and sultry as It
was at that time of year, More
humid down in the valley, too Uncomfortable
living there, We
wondered whether she knew just what She’d
bought, it wasn’t the views, Old
Mac had planted all carnivores She
found, did Helen de Grues. The
place was a tropical stew down there But
there wasn’t a single fly, With
all of the Venus fly-traps there They
came and they saw, to die, The
river meandered past her place But
mosquito’s were nowhere around, For
all of the pesky insects there That
place was a killing ground. We
thought that she’d rip them out, but no, She
added a thousand more, Brought
species from South America that We’d
not even heard of before, There
were pitfall traps like you’ve never seen And
they grew like steam in the heat, And
they took small birds and reptiles when They’d
not had enough to eat. The
Mayor called on Helen de Grues To
tell her the latest spin, The
council was seizing half of her land, And
putting a highway in, She
fought like a savage tigress, Took
the councillors all to court, ‘You’re
far too late,’ said the magistrate, ‘You
should have checked what you’d bought!’ The
plans allowed for an easement, they Could
do with it what they would, And
a highway down to Disaster Bay Was
planned, submitted, approved, But
Helen put a good face on it, Invited
the councillors down, She
put on a spread, on the land where they said They
would rip her plants from the ground. The
councillors never went back again, Most
of them never got home, The
giant Nepenthes saw to that As
they stripped each one to the bone, The
Mayor was lost by the river bank, She
said he couldn’t be sillier, ‘It
wasn’t a plant,’ said Helen de Grues, ‘But
a giant Crocodilia!’ David
Lewis Paget © 2012 David Lewis PagetFeatured Review
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13 Reviews Added on October 19, 2012 Last Updated on October 19, 2012 Tags: Fly-traps, pitfalls, carnivores, mayor Author
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