Roses Only

You do not seem to realize that beauty is a liability rather  thanan asset - that in view of the fact that spirit creates form  we are justified in supposing  that you must have brains.

For you, a symbol of the  unit, stiff and sharp,conscious of surpassing by dint of native superiority and  liking for everythingself-dependent, anything anambitious civilization might produce: for you, unaided, to  attempt through sheer  reserve,  to confuse  presumptions  resulting  from  observation, is idle.

You cannot make us  think you  a delightful happen-so.

But rose, if you are  brilliant, itis not because your petals are the without-which-nothing  of pre-eminence.

Would you not, minusthorns, be a what-is-this, a mereperculiarity?  They are not proof against  a  worm, the  elements, or mildew;but what about the predatory hand?

What is brilliance  without co-ordination?

Guarding the  infinitesimal pieces of your mind, compelling audience tothe remark that it is better to be forgotten than to be re-  membered too violently,your thorns are the best part of you.

This poem was typed in the form that the poet used.

The space and line breaks make for interesting pauses, and add to the tension of the final line.