THE ROSES THAT REFUSED THE DARK

THE ROSES THAT REFUSED THE DARK

They told the roses, “You cannot grow,
there is no sunlight here,
the earth is cold, the night is long,
and no one will come near.”

But underneath the heavy dark,
a little root replied,
“I did not come this far in life
to curl myself and hide.”

It pushed its way through silent soil,
though every stone said no,
and carried all its tiny leaves
towards a world it did not know.

Then one red rose opened her eyes
and looked into the night,
she had no sun above her head,
so made her own red light.

Another rose rose next to her,
then one became a crowd,
they wore their crimson proudly,
and held their petals proud.

Their stems were bent, leave marked,
they were not neat or small,
but every scar upon those flowers
proved they survived it all.

One had lived through loneliness,
one had been torn apart,
one had carried years of grief
inside her flower heart.

But there they stood against the black,
not begging to be seen,
with burning red around their heads
and rivers made of green.

The darkness whispered, “You are mine.”
The roses answered, “No,
you may surround us every night,
but still we choose to grow.”

They did not need a perfect world,
or skies forever blue,
they only needed one brave root
to say, “I’m coming through.”

So never tell a flower
that the darkness is too deep,
some roses bloom while no one looks,
while all the world’s asleep.

And women can be roses too,
with thorns nobody sees,
still standing after every storm,
still dancing in the breeze.

The night may take away the sun,
and steal the morning dew,
but it can never stop a heart
determined to come through.