You went dormant;
The Christmas rose opened,
Bearing false epiphany.
Keep faith, you said,
For the Lenten roses.
Their lances mounded low,
Tamped down chilly,
Promise bedded, evergreen.
Keep faith, you said,
For the Lenten roses.
Our ashes overwintered
In my fireplace;
I sifted for hot-blue fire-starter.
Keep faith, you said,
For the Lenten roses.
February rattled the beech,
With autumn’s papery leavings
Torn and littered.
Keep faith, you said,
For the Lenten roses.
Lent gave me up,
For the penitent I was not.
Lent gave me up,
For the prayerful I was not.
Lent gave me up,
For the devout I was not.
Keep faith, you said,
For the Lenten roses.
Sawtooth blades cut hard-freeze snow,
And blooms pushed up,
Downward shy, nodding blush.
I kept faith for the Lenten roses,
But my out-of-season passion
Could not tremble you awake.