Red Rose Petals

She smiles not often too many
For lately a sickness has come to thee
Once happy, once joyful, suddenly lost
As if someone had invaded and tossed
Her hopes, dreams, happiest memories
And enabled her one of these
A fate so fearful; she paid the toll
Diagnosed a disease into her soul.


Scream in agony and in pain
Will she never find again
Any, at all, a reason to be
A worthy survivor? And to agree
To refuse that terrible worn down road
Which takes but only one simple code
Everyone can follow, anyone knows
One harmless prick thorn of a rose
Sensuously, thickly red
Misleading, evil, it's always said
To have two sides, always two sides
Aside from what any law abides.


From a heart unknown, a heart torn
Will you leave her here forlorn?
To drain in her puddles of angst and tears
Wallowing in self pity and her own fears
See her, feel her, she longs for someone
Before she could ever get the job done.
The bright moonlight gleams in her eye
Is this her fate to forever lie
On a bed of immortal red earth
Return from where she was from birth?
Back to the black skies and no more
Another life, a sad folklore.


Beautiful is her ideas, her dreams
But all is what the devil redeems.
Sadness overcome the mind
So fresh and ready, doesn't decline
Speak well, good one, so I may hear
For a last time I may never be near.


Turn away, don't face the fears
From every single side she hears
The cries and pleads from those before
Turn away and hear no more.
Thrust your anger, smash the lines
And strangle your worries in the vines
Leave the mess, leave it behind
Listen well and follow your mind.


So most involuntary was this act
To retrieve the shard from the rack
Broken crystals reflect and sought
A sound, an image, every thought
Off walls, mirrors and back to her
And began her journey thus farther
Away, far, from her stained soul
Be the rose thorn, play your role.
Soft red petals float to the ground.
Gently will they protect and bound.
Another, and another and another they reach.
Never again will they ever beseech
One so loving, never adored.
Under the moonlight, sparrows roared.
Smell the red roses as she walked by.
Her fate will be to forever lie
In a bed of lush, immortal red
Petals of roses she could never dread
Unlive this life and ignore the strays
And rest in secret happiness always.

September 11, 1998