Garden

I've a rose garden

lush and luxuriant

wrapped in velvet petals

of deep dark maroons

perfumed like exotic secrets

Of Arabian Nights

I've a rose garden

and it has a thorn 

one that grows inwards

right into the soil

burning it with regrets

salting it with pain

I've a rose garden

I'm its thorn

I water it and poison it

Love it and hate it 

embrace it and curse it 

nourish it with ache

I've a rose garden

exuberant in bloom

Flamboyantly plumed 

dense and rich, the petals open to kiss the sun

the thorn inside, a thrum, throb, burn

a burn that nourishes from within

venom that is an elixir

I've a rose garden 

it's a carpet of syrupy maroons

a garden of satin blood moons

pristine from above 

and soiled from within