The Perfect Garden

Lyrics: There were weeds between the flowers There were beetles in the leaves Someone said the beds looked careless Someone knew what gardens need So we pulled what grew unwanted Made the borders straight and clean Not a single stem out of place Not a blemish left to see Then the butterflies grew fewer And the blossoms closed too soon So we brought in better insects Said they'd know exactly what to do But they multiplied by thousands Found the roots beneath the rows So we sprayed until the morning And wondered where the robins went Every answer changed the question Every remedy changed the ground We kept correcting what came after Never turning back around We were making the perfect garden Pulling everything we couldn't control Kill the moth, then lose the roses Feed the flower, starve the soil Every cure required another For the damage done before We kept saving the garden Till the garden was no more When the earth stopped holding water We replaced what wouldn't grow Measured every drop that entered Told the roots where they could go Then the fertilizer traveled Past the beds and down the drain So we built a wall around it Then a channel for the rain Now the flowers bloom on schedule Every season looks the same Nothing wanders through the borders Nothing enters without a name There are charts beside the greenhouse There are numbers on each row We can prove it's getting better By the standards that we wrote Every answer changed the question Every remedy changed the ground We became so good at saving What could once survive without us We were making the perfect garden Pulling everything we couldn't control Kill the moth, then lose the roses Feed the flower, starve the soil Every cure required another For the damage done before We kept saving the garden Till the garden was no more Maybe weeds were never failure Maybe beetles had a place Maybe order isn't healthy Just because it looks arranged Maybe something living changes Without asking what we planned Maybe every crooked wild thing Was what held it all intact We were making the perfect garden Nothing left beyond control No more moths to bruise the petals No more roots beyond their rows Every cure required another Till we couldn't find the cause We made the perfect garden And forgot what growing was Behind the fence, beyond the pathway Where we never touched the ground One small flower broke the pavement No one planted it It grew.