With A Single Thorn Poem by Mary Angela Douglas

some flowers when they're touched evince a bruise

I learned from my Grandmother placing the magnolia bloom

in the silver bowl

some flowers bruise; be careful

sometimes the soul retracts its starry rays

beyond a thing that I can say to make it not so

into the rainbowed, weeping world we go

with small defenses

aren't we all flowers armed with our pretenses

till the path we tread and we ourselves are worn;

threadbare, our cloth of gold

like St. Exupery's rose

who thought herself well guarded

with a single thorn

mary angela douglas 2 august 2021