I once aimed for a perfect lawn, 

Perfectly trimmed trees, a perfect yard.

I lost that battle. The critters won.

Once we had a yard full of dogs,

There was Gretchen and Greta,

Govinda and Killer, Black Dog and Mick,

They kept the wildlife at bay. Now, ha!,

Half a score of deer stand in the garden

Munching on vinca, stand on the deck

Savoring the ivy, every last leaf,

Eat each blade of spring grass 

As it arises, and all I can do is watch.

As for moles and armadillos, they work

In the dark of the earth, and the dark

Of the night, silently—spades of stealth,

I find their mounds and craters come morning.

I sigh, and I try to accept with grace

My defeat, and wonder on nature,

And the nature of perfection, and wonder

If it is meant to be known.

Still, the phoebes return each year

To build their nest under the eaves,

An act which is noble, which fills my heart

With joy, and still the redbuds bloom

And the dogwoods flower and the cherries

And serviceberries show white lace.

And still I admire the plover's

Broken-wing feint and the otter's return,

The peeper's awakening, the blackbird's

Watery trill, the sibilance of spring's breeze

Through bare branches, the plod 

Of the roused terrapin, the flight of geese

And their accompanying pronouncements,

The glide path of the wood-duck

Toward the pond's newly ice-freed surface, 

The prairie song of the meadow lark,

The insistence of the whip-poor-will,

The vulture's dihedral grace,

The hawk and eagle's out-spread wings,

The bobcat's scream, the coyote's yip and howl,

The black snake's coil and my recoil, 

The housefly, the midge, the Japanese beetle, 

The rue, the violet, the bluet,

The last snow, the first fawn.

My quest for perfection may be in vain,

I carry a of sense of being mocked

For my landscaping effort, an effort

Which I rejoin every spring.

But I am learning, slowly. A lifetime

May be enough, it may not.

The lessons are there, before me, 

And obvious, it only takes a new vantage to see.

Perfection may be elusive or a chimera,

Or it may be right before my eyes.