Something Different…


Roses & Thorns

A free-verse poem on Valentine’s Day and based on “I Know What I Like (In Your Wardrobe)” by Genesis.

Crisp air to savor, quench

Today calls for a strident walk…

Of course there is Ernest,

walking away from the same old gloom now

Then he walks all the way to it

Isn’t it time that he gets one of his own?

‘Round the fountain

Two singing lovers

“Two top for you,” the old man remarked

A rose for a thorn,

and a thorn for a rose

Lovers abject, lovers glinting

like sequins in the snow

Then came night, Ernest was appalled

He thought why must I be the only one?

I wish for a future with a beautyful maid, won’t she come down?

Just then he awoke at last

Darkness approached the lovers pining

“But they kept on tweeting and picking azaleas” the old man remarked

A rose for a thorn,

and a thorn for a rose

Lovers abject, lovers glinting

like sequins in the snow

When the brisk air is a real mensch

Today calls for an ardent talk…

…but what do I know?

I’m just old folk.

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