NIGHTMARE?

WHOSE GARDEN WAS THIS

 

Whose garden was this, it must have been lovely.
Did it have flowers.
I've seen pictures of flowers.
And I'd love to have smelled one.

Whose river was this, you say it ran freely.
Blue was its color.
And I've seen blue in some pictures.
And I'd love to have been there.

Tell me again I need to know.
The forest had trees, the meadows were green.
The oceans were blue and birds really flew.
Can you swear that it's true.

Whose grey sky was this? Or was it a blue one?
You say there were breezes.
I've heard records of breezes.
And I'd love to have felt one.

Tell me again I need to know.
The forest had trees, the meadows were green.
The oceans were blue and birds really flew.
Can you swear that it's true.

Whose garden was this, it must have been lovely.
Did it have flowers.
I've seen pictures of flowers.
And I'd love to have smelled one.

Tell me again I need to know.
Tell me again I need to know.
Tell me again I need to know.
Tell me again I need to know.

 

John Denver-released about 1970

 

According to about ten minutes of strenuous research conducted over mu lunch hour this piece has been released exactly twice over the years.I don’t really know what to make of these lyrics, except that hurt to read them.

 

Is this a nightmare of now or the far future? It was written about 1970. Is it the remains a jungle in <?xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" />Viet Nam after Agent Orange was dropped on it? The remains of an equatorial rainforest? The spreading of the Sahara? The wrecked neighborhoods in the Bronx and Brooklyn?

 

Or is this a nightmare out of the finale of Soylant Green or the novel Stand on Zanzibar? A future when flowers, trees, blue skies, free flowing rivers, unspoiled oceans,and even birds are remembered in pictures and folk tale? Something your doddering great grandparents tell stories about? “I’ve seen pictures of flowers. And I’d loved to have smelled one.”

 

Goddess, may it never come to that. Nearly two generations and we haven't learned a damn thing.