by Stephen Gold

“Gardens do not need plants in them, Monty Don, the horticulturist and broadcaster, has claimed.”
—The Times

My garden is a wondrous thing,
I gaze on it for hours,
Though not a bird drops by to sing,
Nor has it any flowers.

Green-fingered friends give sage advice,
But I shall rest content
Within my earthly paradise
Of wall-to-wall cement.