Thoughts In A Garden Poem by Cicely Fox Smith

Why, where erstwhile I sowed my choicest seeds,
Come up but weeds?
Why do large docks
Appear where should be stocks
And phlox?
Why flaunts the dandelions brazen face
In zinnia’s place?
What makes the groundsel flourish
In patches which should nourish
The useful parsnip and the onion mild?
Why does the thistle (child
By rights of Caledonia stern and wild)
Invade the peaceful South?
Why do all these defy
Both frost and drouth
When dahlias die?
Why does the buttercup
Incessantly come up,
And things like salvias perish at a touch
But not the scutch?
Alas! What boots it with incessant care
To importune thus the air?
Full well I know
I’ll rout
These growths detested out
With toil and pain -
And next week with a hoe
I’ll do it again!