(C) Copyright 1997, Mahmoud A. El-Gamal.

and so he settled near some town.

He asked for work and promptly found

fields that of all produce abound.

He planted seeds of every kind,

some flourished, some became unwound;

but he was proud of that one plant

which grew a flower quite extant;

it was like none the town had seen,

and stood-out in their pastures green;

with colours bright and smell so sweet,

it was - though red - not quite a beet.

One day came an inspection crew

and tested his plant through and through.

They said we have to let you go:

a use for your plant we don't know;

the cows dislike your plant as well,

and hard to eat is hard to sell.

He said: expel me as you chose,

but never cut my lovely rose;

and as for me, the earth I roam:

a wanderer must have no home.