THE FLOWER THIEF (A POEM)

He is up before the Sun is awake

With a plastic bag of the local Mall,

Like Seleucus following Alexander,

Follows his wife scouting the park.

The sleepy flowers are cruelly wrenched

By his murderous fingers in a nimble flash

Ere even the regular early morning walkers

Knew they were waiting to delight them.

The lovers wonder why the lovely park

Once famed for its eye catching bounty

Is bereft of Nature’s simple gift to man

To enjoy and recall in dreamy moments!

Blame this vandal and his religious zeal

And his numerous gods to daily appease

By this ignoble oblation of stolen spoils

At the cost of scandalous public deprivation

Sympathy and social traditions are on his side;

Stealing to appease gods is no criminal offence!

At worst, it is a minor excusable transgression,

Public property is always for such despoiling!