Will I become like the old man from next door?

Obsessed with fear of losing his mind

he soon couldn't take care of himself anymore

He had no friends or relatives to look after him

only once a week some male nurse dropped in

He was found in his bed, dehydrated

unconscious, as he was

they brought him to a diffrent place

"We have never heard of him since... "

He lived alone in his house for most of his life

and I wouldn't be suprised

If he had died the same day

they put him in a room

with the people he'd never seem before

He had a wild garden behind his house

so beautiful and dark

woodpeckers and squirrels lived there

and hedgehogs, mice and martens

Hazelnut-trees and wild strawberries grew

and cherries, apples and pears

and currants of red and black

all hidden in this private place

In the safty of the shadows the fragile fern slept

aloneg the winding paths

the wild-flowers wept

snowdrops noddld their little heads in spring

of which I do not know the names

And, of course, there was ivy everywhere

It happend the same week they took him away

workers hacked down all the trees in the garden

hired by the envious people outside

who had always terrified

by the beauty that enchanted this place

and the darkness it was breathing

Yet, none of them could keep the

Dead Birds From Singing