I took a rose out of our neighbor’s garden;
A pretty thing to take your thoughts on past
The pain.  You shift in bed, reveal your scars:
Red sickles in your skin.  I’d hoped you’d laugh.

Outside, our own rose bush lays bare, the new
Rose petals torn and stamped into the dirt—
The thorns, stained red with drying blood, jut through
The tangled, shattered stems and upturned roots.

But I’m confused; you start to talk about
Your mother.  “My own birth,” you cried, “was such
A mess! And now I have this child…” Get out,
Go to the garden, where snapped branches crunch—
I think of when we smashed the rose bush, thrilled;
How I emerged unscathed as your cuts spilled.