Non-essential Services (Poetry)

They’ve come and hacked away the green
they cannot stand what Nature’s done
the fresh new leaves all pushing through
encouraged by a rebel sun

They call it work — this massacre
this slashing, chopping, mad foray
a lesson in supremacy
to keep the wilderness at bay

What bush dare bud and be itself
when there’s a war against their kind?
Though sap stirs potent in the mud
much wiser keep restraint in mind

or risk a mutilated life
trimmed by butchers, choked by fumes
stuck round the car park’s scrubby edge
where the brave trooper daisy blooms

Flat-dwellers from high windows watch
the onslaught with resigned dismay
aware that green presents no threat
all given time will pass away

Despite the virus, there are some
think profit always trumps mere need
hence non-essential work goes on —
such rash decisions fuelled by greed