It was a large piece of ground, rough but flat
he would soon make it green
once the savannah stuff grew out
it would be the best lawn ever seen.

Then the boss of the garden explained
that her Granddad had supplied her free
a twig of non-descript horticulture
which would become a Magnolia tree.

This level, easy to maintain urban vista
was dealt a stroke of malicious force
a devil entered the hilltop garden
and it came from an arboreal source.

With tears flooding his wind blown face
he watched the initial incision
and the tamping around the root completed 
this terrible irrevocable decision.

Each time he went to mow*
with the straight line urban cut
he had to swerve around this twig
his book on lawns banged shut.

The tree got taller and got much thicker
and then grew branches out
the sunlight was denied to the ground
so all the grass died round about.

It just got worse as years went by
as the interloper spread
needing always to cut round the beast 
the mower man wanted it dead.

Slowly the tree worked a magic
and became the accepted face
of the green lawn at the garden's summit
which really brightened the place.

One day pink leafy flowers thrust skywards
bursting through a late April snow,
overwhelmed the tree hater realised he
didn't want the Magnolia to go.

* went to mow his meadow