A Tour of the Garden

Welcome, please take off your shoes
Be careful where you step
Our residents walk aimlessly, no path here is direct

There is no good or evil here
There is no wrong or right
Our home here is a garden of desire and delight

Of course outside these sturdy walls
Evil does exist
But we call it out, sneer and shout, and raise our angry fists

There are no voices here
We speak through little screens
That pull our pretty puppet strings as we rage against the machine

I’m sorry, what is that you said?
I really beg your pardon
Let us now continue on our tour of the garden

There are no parents here
No husbands, wives, daughters, sons
No one here belongs to me or you or anyone

There are no vows here
There are no ropes and chains
People go by numbers here, not arbitrary names

Love is a vice here
Our doors are always open
We speak in neurochemicals: dopamine, oxytocin

Divergence is an asset here
Everyone stakes their claim
It frees of us from the burden of our guilt and blame and shame

And if this feels too soft for you
Well it’s a shame that you’ve been hardened
Let us now continue on our tour of the garden

Religion is a joke here
We pray to holy evolution
‘Do not harm’ are the only words in our consecrated constitution

We have our own apocalypse
Our very own righteous saints
With screeds and slogans sanctified in dripping, bloody paints

Please follow me to the sanctuary
Yes that’s Darwin on the wall
Sorry, it’s a bit dark but there is Marx by the choir stalls

And the large room here is the dining hall
You won’t find wheat or meat
Our residents can’t feel disgust, so everything tastes sweet

And if we all seem lost to you,
Faces on the milk carton
Please let us continue on our tour of the garden

We craft our own definitions here
Our own labels too
We write our own reality—what is fiction, what is true
Of course, you’re free to disagree
But please keep it to yourself
Or it’s excommunication to preserve our mental health

I hope you like what you have seen
If not, it’s really okay
Just don’t come back again, my friend
And have a lovely day