FREED VERSE

Who ever hated carnations?

Called them funeral, filler, frill--
   The mark of a lover who doesn't know 
   how to love beyond the cheap shadow
   of a spray rose.

A fake of a fake,
   a penny saved but never earned,
   plus the loss of a second glance.

Yet their fanning flowers bear no thorns,
and their soft petals are spared from wilt.

Save carnations for the young, whose skin
cares not for the blood 
from a rose's prick.