My Thorn Flower

                     
               My flower has not much beauty.
               It's not sweet-smelling like the rose.
               It only has the stem and the thorns
               and that's the way my story goes.

               Some days when my flower is open
               it is as beautiful as can be.
               But when I bend to smell the flower
               I can feel the thorns stick in me.

               But why did the thorns stick in me?
               This reason I do not know.
               I loved the thorns for what they were
               and my feelings on them I've bestowed.

               Now that the thorns have all broken
               and all that is left is the stem,
               it doesn't have much of a flower now
               but I'm hoping it will blossom again.

                                                     11/81