The Dragon Tree

Strange-scented birds and song-flowers growIn the garden where I cannot go,Where green-trunked trees grey apples holdAnd blue fish swim in pools of gold.

And always there a green sun glowsTo burn the song of the red-leafed rose,While yellow grasses bend their kneesBefore a bluebird-smelling breeze.

Around the garden's circle fliesThe dragon-tree to eat the skiesWith silver-scented fruit that singsHid in the branches of its wings.

That garden now to me is goneWhere sight and sound and sense are one,But children walk there still beforeThey eat the dragon's cherished store.