inch by inch, row by row

I went to an "adult sing-a-long" at the kids' school recently. it was sort of fun, but the 60s, hippy-folk-rock choices in the songsheet startled me -- still, what did I expect?

At one point, we were singing The Big Yellow Taxi (Joni Mitchell, originally, though there's a more recent cover, I think) "they paved paradise and put up a parking lot" -- with the DDT mention, etc., which everyone else seemed to groove to. Then, someone asked what the sudden shift in imagery at the end with the taxi meant and I bit my lip to keep from saying "oh, it represents the departure of millions of people who have died of malaria since DDT was banned".

Still, it reminded me of the extra verse I wrote to "the garden song" a few years ago:
plant your garden rows so wide
keep them safe with pesticide
so that bugs can't get inside
and destroy your fertile ground...

And there's still another way
modify their DNA
so they're strong and they'll stay that way
til the rain comes tumbling down.