The Skeletal Garden

Will I become like the old man from next door?
Obsessed with the fear of losing his mind
He soon couldn't take care of himself anymore
He had no friends or relatives to look after him
Only once a week some male nurse dropped in
He was found in his bed, dehydrated
Unconscious as he was
They brought him to a different place
We've never heard of him since
He lived alone in his house for most of his life
And I wouldn't be suprised
If he had died the day they put him in a room
With people he'd never seen before
He had a wild garden behind his house
Beautiful and dark
Woodpeckers and squirrels lived there
And hedgehogs and mice and martens
Hazelnut trees and wild strawberries grew
And cherries, apples and pears
Currents of red and black
All hidden in this private place
In the safety of the shadow
The fragile folk's land
Along the winding paths the wild flowers wept
Snowdrop nodded their heads in spring
Forget-me-nots and all kinds of things
Of which I do not know the names
And of course there was ivy everywhere
It happened the same week they took him away
Workers hacked down all of the trees in the garden
Hired by the envious people outside
Who had always been terrified
By the beauty that enchanted this place
And the darkness it was breathing!
Yet none of them could keep the dead birds from singing