Joanna Gilman Hyde

The Tomato-coloured Couch 6:22pm

I have saved every Dozen Roses

of Eliza’s

hung upside down

& dried out

in vases, arranged

two dozen still hanging

from Me, old boyfriends

one treasured young man

staged in My Kitchen

doubled dozen in cut glass

petals laying themselves out

on table tops

falling to the floor

scattered up the stairs

crunching in Her Bed Room

all their colours subtly muted

drying into generic mauve

as they lose their moisture

their scent

taking on the scent of age

of years