Main Street, and Other Poems

Roses

(For Katherine Bregy)

 I went to gather roses and twine them in a ring,
 For I would make a posy, a posy for the King.
 I got an hundred roses, the loveliest there be,
 From the white rose vine and the pink rose bush and from the red rose tree.

 But when I took my posy and laid it at His feet
 I found He had His roses a million times more sweet.
 There was a scarlet blossom upon each foot and hand,
 And a great pink rose bloomed from His side for the healing of the land.

 Now of this fair and awful King there is this marvel told,
 That He wears a crown of linked thorns instead of one of gold.
 Where there are thorns are roses, and I saw a line of red,
 A little wreath of roses around His radiant head.

 A red rose is His Sacred Heart, a white rose is His face,
 And His breath has turned the barren world to a rich and flowery place.
 He is the Rose of Sharon, His gardener am I,
 And I shall drink His fragrance in Heaven when I die.