Do Mad people have Mad gardens & Iron maiden
by Barbara Smith
[ poetry - february 05 ]
Do Mad people have Mad gardens
Mary, Mary quite contrary,
how does your garden grow?
With thickets and trees
thatches and reeds;
that's how her garden grows.
With homemade drains
and shale from Spain;
overgrown trees
and dead stumps with ferns
with the rushing of water
and a bounden road
and an old cesspit
to keep all her shit:
that's how her garden grows.
Iron maiden
There's a rusted maiden
at the end of my washing line
with her legs spread akimbo
for the world to see:
splayed by the young spear of nu-metal.
She lost her head though
a long time ago;
she had it turned
by the washing line.
