On Stars and Roses

When I was young, all I wanted to do was make the world laugh, give every pretty girl a rose petal, then fall asleep among the ever golden stars. Instead I managed to give my whole rosebud to someone, then watched as she refurbished it into a thorn-full necklace to tantalize other men.

I deserved it though. I was never funny to begin with. Choosing to waste my breath on jokes of ultra, unnecessary, unforgivable violence; and a repulsive type of sex, sex, sex, sex! – Like I’ll ever know what that sensation feels like. And now I watch the stars slip past me into that spellbound darkness, looking like little yellow roses.

It’s dark here, too. Or at least it would be if the artists weren’t bursting red rockets down on the corner, for the cuddling doves dancing round the last gorgeous rose patch I’ll ever see. My rose patch has already withered away, and I’m told to just laugh it off because comedians suffer so much anyway.

Sometimes I can’t help watering my roses still, and often I imagine that I see a twinkling glimmer of life in them. But that’s just the faraway stars reflected in the water; or the up close violent red rockets that I’m afraid will take the whole house up in a fiery blaze. They should only take me though, that way the world can at least laugh at my charred remains – physical humor is kind of my specialty.

Yes all the world will laugh, except for Tennessee, who will be peeved when he learns I had never needed roses, and thought the constellations were more interesting than the giggling seeds steadily rising from the ground.

Taylor Rivers was raised in Vallejo, CA. He is currently working towards attaining a bachelor’s in Theatre Arts and plans on becoming an actor once he finishes college. Taylor’s work has also been featured in the spring 2017 issue of Palaver Arts Magazine. Taylor is drawn to depicting the darker aspects of life in his art, believing it makes the sweet aspects of life all the sweeter.