Steel Roses

The Power & Strength of Forgiveness

Standing on her desk
There was a rose made of steel
The day when she left
It was the only thing she wanted to keep
But there wasn’t room in her backpack
It was a gift from her husband
Who she was quietly quitting
Headed for the bus stop
Aiming to reach the West Coast

The security guards tried to stop her
But when she showed them her meds
They felt they didn’t have a right
So she got on a bus
Then switched to a train
Made it to California
Never going home again

She spent two months
Being a vagrant
Welcoming strangers
Into her residential hotel
Inviting danger at every turn
Maybe someone will beat her
Or do something worse

Eventually it happened
While she was blacked out
He stole all her valuables
Her means for communicating with the world
She went on a rampage
And ended in the hospital
That’s when she called him

Can I come home
I’m sorry I fucked around
Can I please come home
“No need to tell me”
He said “just come home”
“Promise me you will take that flight.”
She promised

At the airport back home
He stood waiting for her
Her clothes were raggedy
He didn’t care
They hugged, together again

And together they stayed
To this very day
He never asked any questions.
He got her a new steel rose.

Related posts:

In the last part of this chapter, we’re going to implement a usable subset of the Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP). HTTP is indisputably the most important application protocol on the internet. Not…