If only humans hadn’t discovered agriculture
But then they might not have discovered ideas
If only humans hadn’t discovered ideas

And when did they discover the future tense
The conditional and the subjunctive
Well these are built into their chromosomes

Once again rain upon the magnolia
Upon the crappy lawn struggling against the clay
Greg can’t go outside and play

In rain the magnolia drops more leaves
Than usual and cones upon the lawn
It should live in a forest where it belongs

Nobody can claim water to be bad
Not even in the midst of drowning
A billion fish can’t all be wrong

And many more than a billion live
And that’s just fish
How does it feel to be just one fish

Just one fish is there such a thing
Perhaps in the world of ideas
Maybe not in the Atlantic

They farm fish in Texas and Viet Nam
And hire feeders skimmers and fish doctors
So they sort of farm labor too it seems

A Gregor is a shepherd sweet otium
But shepherds work harder than you think
Farming or at least herding sheep

Who doesn’t work must stand and beg
I wish they hadn’t named me Greg
I wish the great magnolia were other than it is