Tuesday, May 14, 2024

Don’t stop and smell the roses Sept. 5, 2013

 


(This is something of a response to her most recent poem)


A rose may always be a rose,

But in decay it smells twice as sweet,

we ache to resurrect what once was

or could have been,

the scent of roses rising in the head

 as I whistle passed these graveyards,

the bones of those who found it easier

not to be than to keep on struggling,

 all our own morality undone

with our mortality,

each linked to each other,

more connected by living

than lovers are by love.

How sweet the smell is

 when we can’t get it back,

though the thorns still draw blood

We either be or move on,

or we cease to be,

drinking too deeply waters

that bring cold comfort

but do not give back what we ache for most,

we pointlessly clutching dead roses,

So sweet, when we need to survive

whistling passed the gravestones

of those can no longer choose,

with no options,

 no future,

 just sickly sweetness.

 



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