The Gathering Poem by Reva Kern

We came to the flower garden for gathering
Beautiful, you know how many flowers, of tea roses,
Pale roses of love which crown your head,
Shed petals each summer?

Their stalks are bending from the great wind that rises
The rose petals are dropping on the path
O Lovely, gathering them, since our dream flowers
Fade away tomorrow!

Place them in a bowl and they all carry mixtures
Of apathy and cruelty, remembering past days
We see the tormented love of the roses
Through the moans of the perfume

The great garden is flowerless, my selfish one
The daily butterflies seeing other flowers have flown
And only henceforth butterflies of the night
Come to the sad garden

And the flowers are dying in the defiled room
Our roses in turn shed their pain
Beautiful, sobbing a little, each flower which withers
Is a love that dies.