The Rose In The Maze
From night's peak the color-thieving haze
came blowing down just before the dawn
pulled hissing thru a deep brown camel's eye,
desert's shifting face deskinned and drawn
three thousand miles across the sea to daze
anew the eyes already fey, to grey each face,
salting every indrawn breath with lye,
hiding the rose in the center of the maze.
No different than the incidental drape
of caustic fog upon the casement of the times,
another baffling slap to the heart's blind bird
whose only instinct ever was to fly
uncaged, to make her thousand mile escape,
to give her feathers to the wind to break
or hold, to find somewhere a living branch unburned
and sing to the hidden rose no one can take.
June 2020
posted for
Process note: There is a massive cloud of Saharan dust covering a large portion of the southeastern US and other areas at the moment, causing hazy skies and respiratory problems for some. Here is a link to some info, and pics of how it appears in the Caribbean, from BBC.
Images: White Rose in Pink Smoke, artist unknown, courtesy of Sunday Muse Fair Use
A stylized textile book covering from the Netherlands, circa 1615-1650, depicting a rose Fair Use