Roses on the Table


If (our) love was a garden

And I was your rose

Why did you unearth me

Put me in a pot

And set me on y(our) dining room table as a centrepiece

In a room without sunlight

Knowing I would wilt?


While I was kept as y(our) centrepiece

What was growing in y(our) garden?

How could you use me, wilted petals and all

To nurture the budding love in y(our) backyard?


Did my spine bend too easily?

Were my petals not as bright as hers?

Did I take up just too much of y(our) attention?

Or when the sun beat down on you as you weeded y(our) garden

Did you feel like I was no longer worth the trouble?


Tell me

Did you dislike that I made you wait for me to bloom?

Or did she give you all that I never could?

Because I would have given you everything

Down to my last seed


But you put me on y(our) dining table as a centrepiece

In a room without sunlight

Knowing I would wilt.


Autor(es): Mandisa Makwakwa Masokameng