cold roses strewn secured my love

engendering that rude wayward fire

moving my heart to defy tomorrow

trapping me amid my frank desire

 

she left only thorns stuck in my mind

without a word I was left overturned

ship-wrecked shocked and abandoned

I watched from afar as my life burned

 

her place was rank with faded roses

the old perfume of eternal betrayal

in her eyes I met no future, even then

those fine words seemed oddly stale

 

she left only thorns stuck in my mind

without a word I was left overturned

ship-wrecked shocked and abandoned

I watched from afar as my life burned

 

under that veneer all roses are wild

I knew it was wrong from the start

this hybrid rose was a rampant climber

it hammered pitons into  my heart

 

she left only thorns stuck in my mind

without a word I was left overturned

ship-wrecked shocked and abandoned

I watched from afar as my life burned

 

of her its thorns I recall, not roses

one thorn remains, its roots still cling,

a sharp reminder that even faded roses

arrive booby-trapped with a sting