Unsoiled in love

Think of the perfectness
           of the rose unchallenged
never called into question
           a rose of no virtue
knowing nothing
           of the speed of life
with all its vexatious
           complexities

The beauty that drives the rose
           derives from the fecund
mineral soil
           and from the pedigree
of its earthly stars
           a tight knot of molecules
shaped from the simplicities
           of sunlight
the radiance of its petals
           lives on in the kiss
in man and woman sexed
           in the coalescence
of their flesh
           unsoiled in love

John Lyons