EARTHBORNE ONLINE POETRY MAGAZINE

ROSE LESSONS

 

One petal dropped—others

will soon follow.

The white rose must tell me all its secrets

today.

 

Still, on the morning of its dying

pale yellow pulses

from its core,

the sun's energy

glowing even as the white rose

gasps its last.

 

A fallen petal, edges browning

but still touched by yellow at the tip

which connected to the center

says life and death are but a breath apart,

the space between an arc of beauty.

 

I study the rose.

 

Tiny petals at the center fold

over curling beige tendrils on a bed of red

flanked by larger ones which sway outward,

fold over at their edges,

still snowy white.

 

I see six layers of petals,

each with its own shape and gesture

those farthest from the center

dropping downward,

separate from the cluster of the others.

 

I see excellent design: repition, variation

And I marvel at the rose.

Which in its beautiful,

brief lifeholds (and tells)

the secrets of the universe.