I Stole a Rose

I stole a rose in the market today!
And I thought your name as I darted away.

The shopkeeper’s shout made me turn ‘round and glance,
but his nod and his smile said, “Go on, take a chance!”

I ran down the cobblestone alleys,
taking shortcuts we discovered as kids.

Then all of a sudden, time seemed to stop.
And the whole of you welled up in my mind:

    I’ve loved you since I first saw your smile,
    As we’d walk to grade school together.

    I’ve loved you since I first heard your laugh,
    And it echoes in my dreams every night.

    I’ve loved you since I first held your hand,
    And I know now I should have held tight…

Somehow we’ve drifted apart,
but there’s a place for you still in my heart!
Today I’m in a chance-taking mood,
and so on this late afternoon:

I leave this rose…
      on your doorstep…
                             just to see…

                                                           ­                                  I Found a Rose

                                                     I found a rose on my doorstep today!
                                                    It’s made me smile and feel quite gay.

                                        I wondered a while if by accident it was lost,
                           or perhaps something someone had casually tossed?

                    But, there’s a boy on my mind who I used to know well,
                                                and my intuition tells me not to dismiss:

                                          I liked him since the first day I met him,
                                                         and often I replay our first kiss.

                 Though we’ve both gone our own separate ways now,
                                        my memories of being with him are bliss.

                               Could it be that he’s remembered me likewise,
                           and has proffered what my heart’s long desired?
  
                                                            I’d be foolish to not take a chance,
                                                         ­     and fail to believe an old dream.
                                          
               ­                I know a shop in the market where roses are sold,
                      so I’ll summon my courage to make a move quite bold!

                                                       I was dizzy and not thinking clearly,
                                                                     as I gleefully selected a rose.
                                                 The shopkeeper looked at me strangely:
                                               I wonder... is there something he knows?

                                                                              Now I leave this rose…
                                                                on your doorstep…
                                                       just to say…

I Found a Rose, II

I found a rose on my doorstep tonight!
And my heart is filled with delight!

I’m smiling and laughing and so full of glee,
just thinking what a wonder it is she chose me!

   I’m off now to pay a visit to the love of my life,
   and I’ll not hold back any feelings.
   But I do have one secret I’ll not tell her yet:
   someday I’m going to make her my wife!

i hated the smell of cologne until i met you
now whenever i get a whiff of it from a passing stranger
i plunge into a deep nostalgia for a time when
i was yours and you were mine
when everything in the world was suddenly fine

And i can't take my mind
From that hairdresser i frequent
Just had her second baby
Right after her father had died
To leave her care for a half brother
That is lost to the angst of teenage pride
Unknown a mother on a drug fuelled ride
Stacey the one to pick pieces as they fall
For she is beautiful, she never cries.
She only ever smiles, she only smiles

To her my coat of colours i do gift
On a hook does it hang
As her life she strips bare
With an ease of fallen discarded hair
Her colours unfurl in humility and grace
Her red is of creation, of a burning fire
Not one of foolish unrepentant desire
Her blue a reality, a living breathing sky
Not the word of a poet, not of you nor of I
Her green is her renewal
Of the fertile lives that she now tends
Jealousy nor envy no means to that end
Yet evening falls, in who will she confide?  
No one to turn to, nowhere to hide
For she is beautiful, she never smiles  
She only ever cries, she only cries

when she looks into the mirror
she sees his longing brown eyes
and his black hair she would like to touch
his smile is magical and captures her imagination

she closes her eyes to sense his presence

when she looks into the mirror again
she sees her longing green eyes
and her brown hair she would like him to touch
her smile is magical but he cannot see it