Setting Fire to the Rose Garden
Each flower is a gift, a testament to
another morning’s arrival.
I watch you tend the firestar, its
mango-colored petals flirting with
the fire ’n’ ice’s elegant
red, accepting the pink indictment
of the flaming peace, and the
scarlet fireglow’s blush. You are like
a new sunlight crossing the day,
yet when I wave, a cloud passes over
you. Flames differ in this regard,
knowing they exist only as the product
of heat, oxidation and combustible
material, yet sharing their brief lives
with all who care to notice. I inhale
your dark thoughts, holding them
within, but later assemble my own
bouquet — wood chips and diesel
fuel, ground spinners, snakes,
strobes, rockets, candles, shells,
repeaters and a spark timer — and
plant it fondly in the garden. Oh,
how they’ll blossom before dawn’s
first touch. How they will shine.
“Setting Fire to the Rose Garden” was drafted during the August 2015 Tupelo Press 30/30 Challenge, and was recently published in The Paragon Journal’s [Insert Yourself Here]: an Anthology of Contemporary Poetry.
O at the Edges 
Dense. Beautifully written!
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Thank you, Anshu.
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Perhaps fodder for a New Year wee-hours celebration …
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Ooh, now that’s an idea!
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setting fire to the soul
so that the desires and the passion burn……yet
they stayed alive…. like vaccum in space…
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Thank you for this.
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Beautifully described
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Thank you, Derrick.
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I suppose I’m a bit of a naturalist, and a former flower power child, and your beautiful poem reflects all the wondrous colourful images of those enlightening years….. Oh, by the way of a long trip around the world, our Albatross has landed, on the wings of our glorious elegant big bird your master piece has arrived, just in time for Christmas, and feeling I’ve been blessed. xx Merry Christmas Robert.
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We grew roses many years ago, but shade intruded. I’m so pleased the albatross has landed!
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Often, your words produce such a rush of emotions, they defy my immediate ability to translate them. Reading this is another such experience.
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The ultimate compliment! Thank you. I feel like a success. Truly.
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