O sweetest sister, debonair,
Standing tall in velvet flair,
Safe in perfect countenance,
Blushed with tight-lipped elegance—
Genteel play, pragmatic tease,
Serene, composed, with thorns at ease—
Splendor tamed to well-versed rhyme
In fragrant couplets, bound, sublime!
Softest ruse, bedded-down,
Polishes your diva-crown —
What needs have you, except be seen—
The favored residential queen!
I ne'er would dream to interfere—
But where's your gypsy soul, my dear?
Come, sweet damask, place the gamble—
Trade your velvet for the bramble!
Sprawl the hedgerows on the wind,
In hawthorn's drift the past rescind,
Where spiders' webs weave delight,
Inveigling gypsies of the night;
Impetuous, through tousled tangle,
The wren the spell does burst, then dangle,
As giddy bee is lured to drown
On palest-pink, unfettered crown—
O fairy vagrant, hiding mystery,
Cavorting on the wild periphery,
I ne'er would dream to interpose—
But give me, give me, the vagabond rose!
– Jennifer van Westrum