There once stood a Rose by the riverbank

So brilliant 

So red 

That all the Gardeners yearned for her

She, however, was guarded 

Guarded by her thorns 

One day, a Gardener 

As quiet as a mouse 

Caught the Rose’s eyes 

So mysterious 

So dark 

Everything she isn't

So she tried to catch the Gardener’s eye

But his eyes were only for Chrysanthemum 

The Rose 

devastated, tried to find another 

But all those who loomed 

Could not bloom 

The progressing doom

That was the Roses heart

And the core of the Rose started to shatter 

So she waited

Day and night

Unsuccessfully imitating the Chrysanthemum 

But she could never gain those pearly white petals 

That captured the Gardener’s heart 

But any wise Gardener knows what a Chrysanthemum represents 

Unlike the Rose

Who births love 

A Chrysanthemum is more sinister 

When she is plucked

She brings death and mourning 

So when Rose saw that the Gardener plucked Chrysanthemum

And smiled so lovingly at the flower of death 

She almost cried out to him 

To stop and drop the cursed flower

But her thorns stopped her 

The Chrysanthemum looked at her for the first and only time

Her gaze was so cold 

So distant  

As if she was a thousand miles away

And her smile was so empty

As the Gardener slipped and fell into the riverbank 

With his clench on her stem 

And her clutch on his heart

Where both the Gardener and Chrysanthemum stood

There was nothing but dust left

So once again 

A brilliant Rose sat near a riverbank 

So brilliant 

So pink 

No competition to be seen 

And no Gardeners to be found 

All but death surrounded her 

The Rose wanted by all

Slowly withering away 

Her color turning pearly white 

Turning slowly into the Chrysanthemum she wanted to be

At the riverbank 

Where it all began 

Stood a Chrysanthemum and a Rose 

So red 

So mysterious 

That all the Gardeners wanted to have it 

The process of the Chrysanthemum and Rose 

Began, yet again

- Poem by Weronika Karpio