> ## Content Index
> Fetch the complete content index at: https://www.yacubdavidsmith.com/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further.

# In the Rose's Defence
- URL: https://www.yacubdavidsmith.com/in-the-roses-defence/
- Published: 2026-09-25T22:00:16.000Z
- Updated: 2026-09-26T07:03:46.000Z
- Author: yacub david smith
- Tags: Poetry, Just Like Cambridge

Tread me not,  
clad in Wellingtons,  
britches fabulously  
mired in muck—

for it was you, not I,  
that chose these light,  
tender petals,  
my stem firm and bright,  
my colors softer than  
the pink found at twilight—

I was there—settled in my plot,  
minding affairs of my own,  
drawing a child’s smile,  
eyes stretched wide;

a place for butterfly or fly  
to quietly land,  
bathe in the sun,  
until some stealthy  
blood-bold avian strikes  
and sends it stumbling—

How nefarious!  
Your nugatory disdain  
of truthful, bliss-bound bouquets—

my only acts of honor:  
called to raise beauty,  
to assuage a breaking heart,  
to bring fire to the lips,  
and hunger for love’s forgotten heights—

Now I will speak!

No chains of untruth can bind  
words girded by the honest  
proclamation of affection.

No sword or gardener’s knife  
can silence a flower or a lover.

No boot can finally  
trample hope nor wonder—

We are creatures passing in the night.

Swing your pruning shears,  
cast my lifeless body into your basket,  
place me slapshod in your vase,  
in the middle of your dining room—

and watch me, for one last minute, shine!

My scent will mix with the wine,  
my breath unlock innocence—

September 24, 2026