Doggerel Dave

Three Palms Revisited

 

Three Palms:

The sale will go ahead just four doors down;

A doubtful fate for the cottage it seems,

I bet the final bidder goes to town -

Still maybe they’ve found the home of their dreams:

 

Plenty of character though not vintage

Including rich green garden, neat courtyard;

But here’s Sydney, full of legal pillage -

‘Improvement’ is likely without regard.                   

 

Trees through my window hail me at breakfasts

All back grounded by ever changing sky;

Palms elegant, stately, tall as mainmasts

Set fair my journey into the day’s eye.

 

Of course those three palms were felled one morning:

Dissolved - the view I’d known for fifteen years.

This lessened life’s texture at day’s dawning

And my loss joined the surfeit of world cares.

 

Now I have nothing left but remembrance

As the palms aren’t there for the winds to play;

In the end there’s no choice but acceptance.

Well at least they’ve allowed the sky to stay.

 

Later:

So major works as that garden is cleared

To place a two floor garage tall and bland.

Concrete surfaces everywhere appeared;

Because three tank like cars now ruled this land.

 

Cottage character was reinvented -

Here gleaming white rather than honeyed brick;

The building now massively extended,

Lord of the Manor gave Nature the flick.