Rivers and Rosebuds

The romanticized life beholds beauty
Of human life valued in laughs and tears,
And measured in rosebuds and tragedy
With the meaning found where truth doth appear.
Athena looks over ev’ry shoulder,
Seeing reason rules our mental slumber.
Is meaning washed away by tides colder
If beauty is now measured in number?
Yet beauty is but a number indeed,
Counted in blooming buds and sparkling eyes.
And shan’t a tide of owls fly not for need,
But for fierce happiness, however wise?
So passion and wisdom fall into place,
Rivers and rosebuds unite in embrace.