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