A Rose Just Like Yourself

I tasted flowers
I smelled them for hours
Even after they had gone
The petals left a taste of sugar
There with my tongue

Back behind the shed
Where I got high
One more hit
And I would die

Left there in my church clothes
One Sunday
I traded some of my time
For roots and cloves
And when I had nothing to see
The garden showed me love

Three fourths alive
But I know myself
And I keep roses with me
Black and brittle
But I keep them

The garden showed me love
When no one else would