Contemplating A Rose

 

In the old books, a silk merchant

steals a rose for his daughter

from a private garden. The rose

is fabled to be the most exquisite

in the kingdom. Its pallor

could match that of the fairest maiden.

 

 

Often, I dismissed the idea

of a single rose gaining  such status

or summoning such desire. After all,

it was a storyteller's song.. Yet, last night

when the desert cooled at dusk

you found a branch of the rose bush

blocking the sprinkler. You snipped

the  sprig with a frail bud

about to open --  and brought it inside.

 

I placed the plant in a glass vase

with  water -- expecting it might die. This morning

a symmetrical  bloom

leans forward in praying mantis pink. Just there

bidding me to sigh, to trace

its contours with the light hand

of  the heroine in the fairytale,  to know

and feel as she did when first given

the flower, the coveted gift.

 

 

I sense her subtle pulse

radiating through  stem, leaf

and petal, the vine work

of my own wrist. This is Beauty's rose

our rose. Summer's offering

in the worst of dry  heat and rainless hours

A bribe to believe.

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The lovely painting is by French artist, Marie-France Riviere and entitled --
"Une Première Dame en liberté ". More of her lovely work can be found here -- www.griviere.com/expo2000