the dog dug up the roses I planted four weeks ago
he dug them up thrice
and scattered their shredded stems around the exactitude of the holes I dug
and when I stuck them back into the ground
I pricked my fingers three times for each tetchy vine I rooted
and forgot to water them for as many days
then the weatherman predicted a freeze
and of course it snowed
and then it froze more nights than the perforations on my fingers

yet today they bloom–
spirited green and bordered red
spreading their fast arms into the garden bed
reaching for the legs of the pergola
as if forgetting their birth and the days that followed

and seeing them now
I cannot help but know
how much like parenting it is
to plant a hearty rose

–KarenHansonPercy