a scent of roses fill this room
giving clues to summer's bloom
magnified through water's lens
thorns belie our velvet friends
a mouse once helped a lion's paw
who bawled to heaven with his pall
Hawthorn trees, appropriate name
sharp hawed lion with kingly mane
healing beauty eased its pain
as pity brooked the mouse's brain
a greater beast brought down to serve
the lesser mouse with velvet fur
a moral seems to lend its fragrance
as nature builds eternal rings
take this leaf, humbly snipped
as aphid clings to flower's hip
-cec