Garden Economics

            The beautiful landscape as we know it
            belongs to those who are like it.
                        —Muso Soseki
 
Capitalism is such a beautiful weed.
 
It grows most striking
without constraint
 
and prospers for a while
                                    in fertile soil,
 
until it chokes
on its own coiled roots
and
                        unrestrained vines—
 
a laissez-faire foliage.
 
A mindful gardener prunes such flora,
            held so fair,
 
with incisiveness, with tender love
            and care,
 
lest he be compelled to axe and spade.
 
He does not go
all Edward Scissorhands on it,
 
            snip, snip,       
                        manicure,

manipulate,                 cultivate.
 
Capitalism is a beautiful weed,
 
a living, growing thing,
                        not a delicate thing.
 
Trim, tend, and cultivate,
or axe, spade.

-

"Garden Economics" was included in Issue 13 (Spring 2016) of local Dayton journal Mock Turtle Zine. 

Past issues of Mock Turtle can be viewed online.

Eric