Open On The Rose Poem by James McLain

and it's just that you need it today
knowing that today
was no different than yesterday
and yet when i approach it
and it opens
like you know it will tomorrow
it is not fear that causes you to move
away towards it again
and when one end meets the other
and you do move it closer to the wall
even with each moon in my hand
it trembles as it readies
to open up and each petal
folding open on the rose
and the thorn
in it's heart and it's heat i touch
and though your arms
swimming the back stroke
try to reach backwards to some thing
that never was there
i just need
as you well now know
to pull the moon down
ever closer.
to meet it's living, breathing end.
Today opened on the rose, sits a thorn.