Silence. Struggle. Salvation.
By Judith Cody
for Guy, he'd have understood
Crash in the rose garden. Crash. Crash. Crash.
Suddenly a full petaled wide open Tea Rose
Known as Mr. Lincoln, let go of most of
Its immense maroon, elderly petals (this all at once)
Sending them fluttering helplessly to the bare
Ground, some of them struck a furtive Brown Towhee
Who was scratching noisily at the base of the shrub
For a few errant earwigs who normally rest in the day,
But now must fight wiggle for their lives (though lost)
For a second, now the descending cascade of petals distracted
The disheveled bird allowing the exposed insects
To escape (this afternoon).
Reprinted from Garden on an Alien Star System (Finishing Line Press, 2020); first published in Phantasmagoria 5(1):8
Source: https://www.finishinglinepress.com/product/garden-on-an-alien-star-system-by-judith-cody/
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