Love Poem: A Rose Without Petals
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Written by: Isaiah Otieno

A Rose Without Petals


Of what color is a rose without petals?
Is it not?
A cloudy window of imagination or reminisces of a moribund love?
Of what scent is a rose without ‘wings’?
For in the sweet rich pinkish color, we savored the breath of a life 
And in the pulpit, the preacher declared with candor, a conferment of our promise
For what reasons are your secrets so hidden like the anger of a calm sea?
Those little cancerous sores that keep your heart bleeding
When the town sleeps, your sobs drown the tranquil of the night
Of what reasons are your tears so stinging?
Leaving your eyes a shadow of their radiance on the day of our wedding 
You have betrayed the innocence of my hands?
That lifted your face of the veil before the priest
And unto those who bore witness to our solemn procession.
Down the aisle
Shall we repeat our vows?
That- 
Our love shall endure, all seasons; and for all reasons.
That like flowers of the spring; our faces shall glow in radiance 
But your ways, are not the ways of love Vanessa
Am always filled with veneration for you
But
How do I see beyond your gloom? 
Because every new day, your smile dies into its gradual paucity
Painful tears of your eyes wets your bosom with every rising sun,
You set my mind reeling back in time
The earth beneath me, and forth my feet, swim in pirouette
And I shall not stand anymore
Tomorrow, I will leave with the first cock’s crow:
I shall leave in the endeavor of my destiny 
I shall leave.
I shall leave a rose without petals.