So Sweet They Call This Paradise, A Villanelle

So Sweet They Call This Paradise
(California by any other name)


So sweet they call this paradise,
And were this really just a game,
It would be fair to advertise.

Set forth with expert laid advice,
As from lectern we proclaim,
How fairly won and worth the price.

This vista-pregnant paradise,
Virgo intacta we would claim.
Gentle husbanding would suffice.

In truth a stained and jaded slice,
Of crusted tart in fullest shame,
Is all that’s left of paradise.

From those who once possessed the prize,
Was stolen this with force and flame,
Dismantled lives with holy guise.

And now with stone laid down in size,
To muffle-drown this land’s exclaim,
We celebrate the compromise.

And verdant sward called paradise
In hidden glory waits reclaim,
There patient cradled in her cries,
Is fervent hope of fair assize.

~Stuart Andrew Marshall Tanner~