More to roses than their roots
they fake love swaying
with the wind,
the inevitability of change.
Night attends
to the garden
to lull them
to sleep.
The weak let go
and weather with the season;
yellow leaves go first.
Roots dig deep,
below the surface
wider than branches.
By the day
the gardener names
roses, and only roses;
the leaves have all
fallen
to
the
ground.
Darylle Rubino is a faculty member of the Department of Humanities in UP Mindanao. This poem was published in an anthology entitled
Bloodlust: Philippine Protest Poetry (from Marcos to Duterte) edited by Alfred A. Yuson and Gémino H. Abad.