The red roses were out
In full bloom
Riotous, cheerful, swaying in their beds
Wearing their full petalled crowns on their heads
I looked from afar 
Day after day 
As the roses danced and played
In the not so far off distance
Something was stopping me
Something in my heart
Was whispering, telling me that these flowers
Were best adored from afar 
I listened and stayed away
From that little paradise
As it burgeoned with beauty
Day after day 
But one morning when I came out to the garden
I felt a lightness of being
And so I strayed further afield 
To that joyful bed of red roses at play

There I looked at the perfect blooms
Each one’s heart lay glistening in the sun
The petals dancing in unison
Around their pulsing cores
And then I saw 
The soil below
There strewn in little pools
Of red, unravelled - unspooled  
Lay the fallen petals 
Fallen … resting … resting … fallen petals 
Some bruised, some new
Some already a part of the earth
As she hugged them close, each delicate edge 
Soaking back into her infinite depths 
The scene took my breath away
Whisking me back to another day 
Full of bittersweet memories 
When I’d seen the same petals 
Strewn where you rested 
In earth’s boundless embrace.