For When You Love a Thistle Dear

This poem was written in response to the Rattle® Poetry Ekphrastic Challenge for August 2024 and was ultimately not selected. You can find more information here.

https://www.rattle.com/ekphrastic/

For When You Love a Thistle Dear

For when you love a thistle dear

You pick the flower whole

The beauty in that rarest bloom

Is worth the pain to hold

-

Its leaves been hewn with roughest saw

A wild and weathered face

With all the knowledge to endure

In such a lonely place

-

You dare to grow where nothing lives

Your roots are strong and deep

From your survival, I discern

A wisdom there I seek

-

It throws out swords upon its stem

Dare not to touch your skin

But from that caress of your heart

Is where my love begins

-

Regal blooms of richest color

From verdant soul does spring

And patient be the loving heart

That waits for such a thing

-

A sweetest perfume on the air

I close my eyes to see

And dancing in the wind my love

How could I not love thee?

-

And in what some would see as weeds

A spirit ‘ever free

It is your rugged type of love

That binds you here to me

-

To try to tame would be in vain

Would go against your will

So I accept you as you are

Deserving of love still

-

For when you pick a thistle dear

You choose the person whole

For underneath their needles sharp

Lies love, its weight in gold

Submitted under MRB