One day I will be an orange rose
it will be glorious
or maybe I already am an orange rose
if we just stop being so literal for a second

We walk around
thinking that means we don’t have roots
as though we aren’t connected like mycelium
across this whole wide planet
by our knowledge of one another
relation to one another
love and hate for one another

I spoke to the tree today
and this is just what he was saying
reminding me of his own roots
how deep and far they go and
how they connect to the other surrounding roots

And I imagined my own roots
splitting out of my feet
in thin glowing blue lines
charting my path
all across the globe
billions of individual strands, knit into each other
a tight inter-connected web
made from all of us and the ripples of our lives

And only now I realize my roots
stretch not just to human beings
but to land
and all of nature
all of mothers creations
to which I belong and from which I draw breath

But as I was saying
I maybe already am an orange flower
and if not one day I will be

I bloom
oh, do I bloom
with beauty and fragrance
I make my entrance
full of confidence and joy
no shame for a single silky petal
nor for my sharpest thorn

But even as I bloom
as I take up as much space as I will
I know the wilt will follow
I know death will come

Cyclical
Predictable

But this is where perhaps I still split
from the rose
in
spirit

My urge is to fight the death
every time
to resist the cycle
to blame myself for weakness
What am I doing wrong that I should wilt?
What am I doing wrong that I should die?

Now the rose may share her wisdom:

Darling, you have done nothing wrong
that you might wilt and die over and over
All us girls do it
We simply couldn’t keep this up all the time
and we wouldn’t want to!
We do love our rest you see