When I view our love

in retrospect

all I can see is the lush

of roses-

the sunflowers are filled

with luminosity

and the fragrance drives me senseless.



But when I view our love

in this very moment

all I can see are thorns

in what were once roses-

all the sunflowers radiate

are darkness

and all I can smell

is the scent of

cypress.





-m.j.a