Marketing beauty‘s briar

by T.P. Wilkinson / July 23rd, 2023

Beheld a single blossom

How we are moved
In our desire to see
Even that we wish not actually.
Our senses so excited
Of thorns no notice
taketh they.
Beheld a single blossom,
In time its fragrance wilts
In time its petals decay
Only then we notice
those thorns
there are to stay.

T.P. Wilkinson, Dr. rer. pol. writes, teaches History and English, directs theatre and coaches cricket between the cradles of Heine and Saramago. He is author of Unbecoming American: A War Memoir and also Church Clothes, Land, Mission and the End of Apartheid in South Africa. Read other articles by T.P..

This article was posted on Sunday, July 23rd, 2023 at 8:02am and is filed under Poetry.