The Red Rose Plant Poem by Ruta Mohapatra

It is a red rose plant said the shopkeeper
Handing me a pot with a little sapling
It came and occupied a corner of my balcony
Within a circle of sunlight in the morning

Morning after morning I watered it
Fed it manure, sprinkled pesticides
And talked to it in whispers
Grow up, said I, grow up…

And so, it did, throwing up a healthy branch
With a tiny bud at the end
My visit to the balcony became frequent
To check on the little bud

It took its own sweet time
Swelling a tiny fraction, a day
Testing my patience, no end
Day after day after day

After a week the outer covering split
Giving glimpses of white petals
To my surprise and disappointment
Where is my bright red rose?

One morning it greeted me
As a wide-open flower
With a core of delicate pink
And the sweetest fragrance ever

I sat wondering at its beauty
And at nature's pleasant surprises
Glad that it was not red and bright
But the purest pink-centered white!