Black Winter Rose

In a garden exploding with colors and sounds.
A garden that holds all it's children dear.

There stands a single rose, hidden in the shadows.

Hidden by the weeds that surround it.

Lonely and black, almost as if it is void of life, it remains unseen as the people walk by it.

A chilled wind slowly begins to stir through the garden.
Colors begin to fade, to wither, causing the garden to give up it's bright voice to the bitter silence of winter.
Softly, gently, the crystal voice of winter begins to laugh.

Snow buries the once bright Red Roses.

The Snap Dragons coil beneath the snow until spring.

Against the sea of snow a single shape rises.
Black as night, it mocks the winters hold on its life.
The Black Rose remains.
The weeds that once hid its beauty now protecting its fragile existence.

Eyes, drawn to the snow white garden, see only the single, proud Rose.

Winter fades to spring.

The Snap Dragons awaken, their wings spreading to call people to look upon their beauty.

Bright Red Roses, as red as blood, rise from the earth to arrest the gaze of children that walk between their towering arches.

The Black Rose is once more forgotten.

But it has only to wait until winter comes again. Then the garden will once more belong to it.