I stand back and gaze across the remnants of my wonderful garden, no longer in bloom. There it lies in the morning sun, with trampled petals no longer glistening from dew. No one realizes the extent of my love for the rose and the ransom paid for my obsession.

As a former resident from Acadia, Maine, my husband and I sold all we possessed for a plot of land in Santa Maria, California for the sole purpose of having the most abundant number of roses in my possession.

And what a grand pursuit it was, with visitors to marvel at my creation. On visiting, you will be greeted with a large wooden map my husband constructed before he passed away. It was his last gift to me, signed "In honor of your garden, your one true love, roses. Dieter."

My garden contains forty-four perfectly separate square beds for forty-three different types of roses. Of those forty-three different types of roses, they are grouped. Of the groups will find the Polyantha, Tea, Groundcover, Miniature, and Grandiflora. You find the David Austin, Floribunda, and Rambler. And you will find the Climbing and the Shrub as well. This is only half of my lovely roses, which take nearly two acres of what I call my Modern roses. Another three acres I dedicated to the Old Garden variety along with my barn, parking lot, and home.

This is my life's work, and I enjoy it thoroughly. Until one day a commotion grew from my most southern and far corner where a group of people stood around my forty-fourth plot, which contains discarded cuttings and a compost. There, from the heap grew a rose like no other, and from one solitary stem a single bud. It was a large bud, and as we stood, in our amazement it began to bloom. As we observed the gradual spreading of the sepal, there came forth the petals of the deepest of black color. Like a choir, our voices awed in unison at a sight never seen before.

Immediately cellphones were pulled, recording in video and stills what we are witnessing. Calls were soon made with posts to social media. I could not believe what I was seeing, and never in my life imagined what would come from the excitement that overtook the crowd in their reaction.

As the day progressed, more and more people arrived. It did not take long before an enormous crowd gathered. Around 11 am news vans appeared. At 1 pm, the police came to manage traffic. By 3 pm lines expanded crushing my life's work underfoot. By 7 pm civil rites protests gathered and burned down my barn. By 8 pm a riot erupted. And by 9 pm the black bloom was snatched and broken. By 11 pm everyone was gone, except for me, looking down on the fallen petals stretched out... on the ground.

My husband's sign was laying there too, broken, among the roses.

by,
Martin Braun
6/25/2020