Of Death & Roses by Alyssa Solis

In life, I have found, there is so much to want                   

I want rain in summer 

I want to fall in love in spring 

I want fortune cookies to tell me truths 

I want to understand the song the birds sing 

I want to be good 

And I yearn to be great 

But in death, I have only one wish 

For a garden of flowers to grow over my remains 

When I look up from under the soil

Up at the pale blue sky 

I’ll be greeted with the winding dances 

of the fluttering butterflies 

Their shadows will decorate sprouting leaves 

As ripe force drives down fruit from the surrounding trees 

Soon they will join me in my decay 

Cloying & festering & fertilizing with each passing day 

If the animals should find me 

Let them pick me clean 

There will be little left of my body 

That the rest of the world should need 

Soon, I will see a rose 

Peek out its timid head 

And in its stead 

A stem, a leaf 

A petal flush with newly acquired virtue 

A thorn armed with vitriol 

I will watch its breaking bloom 

As it reaches up to the unattainable sky 

Reaching up but to no avail

Just like I used to do when I was alive 

And may the passerby 

Who loves flowers just as much as I 

Stop to admire the optimistic rose 

Perhaps cut her out to bring her back home 

She will adorn a vase 

Or be gifted to a lover 

So they too can adore the flowers bloom 

A sweet, macabre souvenir 

From my sweet, lonely, beautiful tomb