The blackened
rose
Silent and unnoticed,
withers away.
The
flames, fed by human
faults,
Grow higher and higher
Around the dieing
flower.
The leaves crumple
And the
passion-red
petals
Harshly curl over from the heat.
The
fire eats away at the stem
And the
thorns
And somewhere from inside a maiden’s
heart
Came a
plea for forgiveness,
Came the blasting, sorrowful
gasp…
And somehow, the
world heard her,
Even over the sound of her
sanity breaking,
Cracking and shattering like a
window,
Etched forever in the
spider web
Of
agony on the
glass…
And she screamed:
"You, the all-consuming, heart-wrenching,
Blistering
fire!
Burn away my
sorrow…
Fiery anger,
Turn my tears to salty
dust,
Destroy the tiny
rose whose
Beauty once shown in me!
Kill the
symbol, the
truth,
The never-ending
sins of
love...
Protect me,
fire,
From the piercing
thorns
Of the red, red
rose."