The Rose

Was this a never-ending day?
The light began its shadow play
As down the hallway nothing stirred
He swore, and then without a word
The street light flickered to expose
The barbed wire wrapped around the rose

There always will be reasons why
And maybe, in the by and by
All of this will make some sense
But meanwhile, in the present tense
It's always hard to juxtapose
The barbed wire wrapped around the rose

He guessed that maybe she would be
Say, twenty-two or twenty-three?
Of course, he'd seen it all before
Another casualty of war
It's more like poetry than prose
This barbed wire wrapped around the rose

They'll say she never had a chance
Another case of happenstance
Another one accounted for
All doubled-up upon the floor
It wasn't anything she chose
This barbed wire wrapped around the rose

But hell, it was a long, long day
'Bout time to put this one away
Philosophy's all very well
But not for this young mademoiselle
The cause of death? He'd diagnose
The barbed wire wrapped around the rose