In riotous profusion the Sweetbrier bloomed <br /> Amid hybrid roses so tidily groomed <br /> Fragrant and enchanting were the roses it bore <br /> Cruelly keen the spiked thorns that it wore. So rosy and sturdy in it's infancy <br /> They nurtured the Sweetbrier lovingly <br /> Pruning; trimming the wildness away <br /> Secured to a trellis, they willed it to stay. But wild grows the bonny Sweetbrier <br /> Untamed by shears or wire <br /> Sadly they watched it spread through the meadow <br /> Where it challenged the unruly Hedgerow. Oft' she gazed from the edge of the meadow <br /> When dewy morn set the sweetbrier aglow <br /> Impetuously it stretched out hither and yon <br /> With fragrant pink roses newly opened at dawn. Pestilence among the Hedgerow grew rife <br /> Infecting the Sweetbrier, slowly sapping it's life <br /> She came to the Sweetbrier and wept at the sight <br /> Once Vigorous and comely, ''twas now defeated by blight. With shears from her pocket she snipped here and there <br /> ''Twas all in vain, but it eased her despair <br /> A fragile pink bud, ne'er to bloom, drooped help- <br /> lessly forlorn <br /> And when she reached for the bud, her heart was <br /> pierced by a thorn.<br /><br />Elaine E. Kelso<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/elaine-e-kelso/
