For All the Roses Over Time

With quotation taken from To the Virgins, to Make Much of Time by Robert Herrick

For All the Roses Over Time

My garden joy, two rows of roses,

heaven’s scent for non-parky noses,

pretty petals demand a rhyme

“For All the Roses Over Time”;

Roses are red, a good start I think,

(ignore yellow, white, cream and pink);

Wars fought out between red and white,

like the annual festive fight,

to see who gets the purple one,

Cadbury’s tin, mum always won;

Bouquet of twelve, an ardent lover,

all things wilt, he’ll soon discover,

petals scattered, on beauty’s sheet,

get lost in cracks and stick to feet;

Kerry’s darling, Rose of Tralee,

in birthday suit, Gypsy Rose Lee,

Titanic’s Rose can’t stop Jack drown,

Henry sees Mary Rose go down;

Crowned with thorns, on third day He rose,

bored of the darkness, I suppose;

Reminds me, blooms soon fade away,

“gather ye rosebuds while ye may”.