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This writing was accepted for publication in the 108 page perfect-bound ISSN# / ISBN# issue/book “My Homeland” Down in the Dirt, v205 (3/23) Order the paperback book:

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Roses

William Ellis

You were a rose born in a field of cotton.
You were taught to be a cotton boll because petals don’t feed the masses.
It’s just the way it is.
Men make clothes.
Men are used as cotton gauze.
Men can make fancy dresses.
Men
Men
Men
Be sensible.
Be a man.

What they don’t know is that women have thorns
Thorns that poke through your plastic mold of what a rose is.
A rose can end a sentence with a preposition
Because Roman cotton made the rules a thousand years ago.
A rose can grow wild even in the Sun’s desolate, scorching rays
A rose can be on display at home or
In a painting
In an office
In a biology laboratory
Because women’s petals are just as strong in the vase as in the thicket of Earth’s breast.

You are God’s bounty
From thy mouth flows the seafoam of Aphrodite’s birth
And Gaia’s harvest
And Athena’s pearls of wisdom.
You are woman, let us hear you roar
Don’t quit until they cover you in roses.

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