

Flintridge sacred heart
Young Writer's Society
presents
Verité
2021-2022
Rose Eater
by Maddy Freeman
The rose is torn from your hands
and all of the red scratches that run up and down the beige pink revealing
flesh of man scarred by beauty,
for one cannot consume the beauteous things we love most people I
never look at because the rose is more beautiful than the face
I sit idly by wanting to get off this phone
to connect face to face of the woman
I love
Who does not know I hold her in such high regard
The thorns get pushed farther down my throat cat scratches
If we are roses
you bite and we bleed
Sharp words and painful looks from beautiful eyes
Is it love or just the idealistic hopes that the rose could be mine
yet even roses demand freedom from your jaws