Black Hearted Rose Poem by Maurice Rowlands

Feeding or maybe it’s bleeding
Whichever, your heart itself is conceding
Fighting, biting, the spark is igniting
Born again, torn and reborn
The end is exciting?
The thorns of the rose
Are inviting?

Like a dagger through water, your soul only flows
Towards darkness, where a flame is inciting
Compared to the blackest of blossoms
This path that you chose
The lowest of lows
Beneath the sensual petals
Of the black hearted rose

A ghost can never become
A lover, the petals above her
A return to the garden
Is just an endeavour
You found the key to the castle of horror
Covered in blood from your veins
The gates closed behind you
And tightened their chains

This black hearted rose
You chose
Is finding the answer
A dancer, lost in the pose
A writer, lost in the prose
A good night, or lost in repose
To trance her, lost in my thoughts
A romancer, the death card he courts
Yielding or fielding?
It’s your loss

You stretched out your arms on the cross
The nails she was wielding

When the blade cuts you down, sweet thing
You’ll fall to your knees, still feeling the sting

Kneel with me
Let us forever be whole
We’ll pray with our hearts
For your soul
And begin our search
For God’s dancer
The roots of the black hearted rose
Are finding the answer
Searching through sorrow
Tomorrow

The answer is calling
The fear is enthralling
The spirit is stalling
Now is the time to accept
That the petals are falling

Spiralling down

Or just pouring

Like blood from the thorns

Of a black hearted rose