#pernnial

In the driveway on the side where my father

parks his work truck, a yellow

rose bush grows.

Tangled, overgrown and thorny it sits as if

on a throne, overreaching into the 

confines of loose stones and dirt-

To navigate through its archway of 

encroaching arms was constantly a test of 

my childhood valour;

I’ve never seen a yellow like that

in any other bloom.

Then the winter came in the night,

and took the petals in a whirlwind;

I only saw a skeleton and the snow 

dripping from the thorns like blood.

-ANPH