Rondo

They put nets on palm trees these days
Green plastic mesh shields ripening dates
From the forces of wind and gravity

They put glass on branches of pear trees
So that fruit grows encased in a bottle
Until it no longer fits through the neck

Remember the times when young men
Walked out of school and into a factory
Just as dates pass from tree to market?

Now the teachers are duty bound
To set young minds into corporate moulds
While not yet weaned off their mothers’ sap

And the hospice is near the maternity ward
And the graveyard still close to the church
And the hearses wait at the hospital gates

Green plastic mesh shields ripening dates
From the forces of wind and gravity
They put nets on palm trees these days