• rolling red rose petals
    blow over in billowing beauty
    as the winding white wind
    carousels them casting carelessly
    labour, love and loss petals be
    cycling, circling the cinnamon tree

    charity of the cheerful cherry blossom
    a pink poultice for pain
    thick thorns removed thoroughly
    a distant rose my direct disdain
    the pink petals pressed to my lips
    as the dream of the ruined red rose

    as so many myriad maple leaves fall
    like ascending ancient ashes
    the black and blue lotus lay
    young spreading beauteous blossom buds
    I’m left aging and alone
    not petals but a metal to which I atone