Rosie Ebbs:

Maybe if Rosie left roses white

instead of painting them red like Aphrodite.

Strong as an undercurrent, Rosie cannot help

but stop and gawk. Her readiness halts all searching,

(the rosebud in my heart, could be yours?).

Down, down down into the darkness of Rosie

Gently she goes – life-size, the adult, the color-wash.

She can’t color inside the lines of pristine and proper.

Down, down, down into the darkness of Rosie—

the artful, the indigenous, the clever.

She laps the rock twice, and once more

calling in her true love like the Greek lore.

The head back is powerful,

above all creature’s big and small rally.

Down, down, down into the darkness of Rosie

Gently she goes – the study loch, the dead zone, the brine