La Rosa ‘Jessica’

for Jessica Perini;¹ this photo from thetutuguru.com.au

Through what wild centuries
Roves back the rose
—Walter de la Mare, All That’s Past, 1912

Tu sei la Rosa rugosa ‘Scabrosa’
foliage springing crinkled,
luminous, minutely tined
petals of heart

We wake and whisper awhile²

As above, so below
and your heart’s in the ground
not ground up
but re-sown

Very old are the woods

You take root, emblossom
en-pink, scramble out
empower to flourish,
to go back, in time

1. Urban farmer, creative, environmentalist and hybrid Old-World rose ↩︎
2. This and the following italic lines are from de la Mare’s poem ↩︎