The prayer of roses

The prayer of roses                                                                                    
 
Beloved God, help me to become
a bed of roses – rose upon rose,
 
rose and rose and still yet roses
until I am roses no more – only fragrance
 
and help me to blend and cling then
to the divine fragrance
 
of the one heavenly Rose
until the very end.
 
O child of God, in the noose of Its fragrance,  
the nightingale becomes the Rose.