On roses

                             On roses                                          In memoriam

                                                                                     to Benigno Sola

                                                                                     who loved roses

                              They first came upon me

                              unawares in Ayat

those vicious overgrown

roses that climbed

the stone wall

of the old farm

they suggested beauty

beauty in extremis

and passion carried away

into abandon

but planting roses

in my garden

my own roses

to care and to love

was not a notion

I had grasped

I thought and said

roses are old-fashioned

too stiff and dainty

for me

my garden is rustic

and ought to blend

into the rolling stony

land that stretches

to the hills in the distance

rose gardens I thought and said

are things of the past

little did I know

how they grow on you

once you plant the first rose bush

that roses unlike other flowers

have a life all of their own

different every day

from every other day

different every season

from every other season