"Urban Rose"

by Emily Newman


Broken land
Black cracked asphalt
Covers the land
Smoking grates
Spewing putrid gas
Shattered empty windows
Show no one

There, amid
The destruction
Grows a pale pink
She fights
For light

Her roots
Bore in the cracks
The bitter freeze
Creates
She grows
In beauty
Against the odds

She survives
Year after year
The grace-
A thorn in the side
Of the ugliness
Of the brutality
Of her broken home

She is strength
Although she
Doesn't know it
Pale pink petals
Georgous emerald green
Stands strong
Against broken black