A Rose by Any Other Name

He thought we were similar

We both saw the good in strangers

And created joy in little things.

He told me I looked like the kind of girl

Who would like cumulonimbus clouds

And the sunny days, 

You know the kind, 

When you have to squint your eyes.

I was so happy

I felt like a cloud

He looked at me and saw a shape

That no one else could see

He thought I was a summer day

Colored like Sakura, cherry blossom trees.

He didn’t know I was just like him

Always waiting on a nimbostratus cloud

And the sound of rain,

By an open window,

Calling the earth to grow.

From then on, he was the rain

My only thought, his happiness

From then on, I wanted to know

If we were caught out in the same thunderstorm

Or if he was enjoying it sheltered in at home.

That’s when I started to forget

That I like the rain too

I liked the rain long before I knew

That he liked the rain too.

I found comfort in the arms of willow trees

Long before he told me they felt like warm blankets

I sang songs about hope and spring snowdrops

Long before I sang for him.

I thought we were different

He looked at the world to hypothesize

I looked at it like a child.

I found the sky unreachable

And the earth unreadable

He could name every plant

And show me every constellation

I asked why without wanting an answer

He asked why and searched for one.

I didn’t want to know what made stars burn

Or trees grow up from seeds

It was all just magic to me

And that’s how I wanted it to be.

What he knew as Rosa, from the family of Rosaceae

I simply called a rose

What he knew as a flower

I responded to by name.

He said he liked the thorns, climbing up the stem

A reminder to be extra careful and gentle

With so delicate a flower

He must have cared more for the Rosa 

And the family of Rosaceae

Then he ever did for me.