Once I saw a gnome in the garden
When summer was high and I was a-yardin’
With lovely ears and an impish smile
Eyes full of tricks and rosy-faced guile
He hustled me out of a foot of grass by the fountain
By claiming he’d raze the mole hill mountain
But when the leaves fell, still it still stood
And I realized, he’d hoodwinked me good
But by then the Missus had moved in with the babes
Now I avoid that patch with the lawnmower’s blades
And wonder if a treehouse would suit better
My conniving, parental little go-getter
RED GLADIOLA 