In the Garden a Girl Named Rosa:
Poetry with John Rybicki
Created by: Destine Hall, Elisa Smith-Alquarelles, Alinah Oropeza, Jennifer Maldanoda, Desiree Baughman, and Angela Dekker (sixth graders at Hillside Middle School).
Rosa lives in the city where the people are made of roses. The citizens smell good all of the time. In Rosa's world the people don't touch each other much. They have special lotion to soften the thorns when they hug in despair. Rosa's people love it when the bees come to get their nectar because it tickles them. They slip their roots into the ground at night when they sleep. They sleep in groups like gardens.
The children in Rosa's world get their nutrients running around in the sprinkler. They not only have fun, they get healthier and start growing.
Rosa loves to sing. She carries a water bottle with her every day and eats fertilizer for every meal. It helps her with her vocals. Rosa lives in the basement of church. Every morning she goes to the altar and prays to God until God starts shining. God is her sunlight.
Some mornings she hears a rustle of petals over her head. The first time she heard the mourners she just ignored it. But one day the priest at Rosa's church hears Rosa singing. He runs downstairs and hides behind the staircase gazing in her direction. Her voice is so beautiful it made his gray hair turn golden yellow. Rosa stops singing and cautiously walks to where she rests her hand on his shoulder. Rosa is so graceful she seems to float towards him like an angel.
Her touch snaps him out of his trance. He leads Rosa up into church where the choir once stood. She looks out to the crowd of roses, and it looks like a field inside the church. Imagine: reds, pinks, purples, yellows--so many cheery colors for such a sad moment.
When Rosa starts singing there's a rush of the spirit of the person who died, and the roses gathered there shed their petals all over the floor.
Helga is Rosa's sister. She's a black rose and very Gothic. Whenever Helga enters a room all the happiness and light fades from people's faces. But when Rosa sang that day even Helga's black heart turned a light pink. For the first time in her life her heart was shining. Helga's thorns disappeared and no one's thorns had ever done that in Rosa's world. Helga was so huggable that day.
In Rosa's world even the cars are flowers. On the way to the cemetery the congregation of roses passes a policeman directing traffic. The policeman is sky blue and has a black hat. On one side of the stoplight over his head there's a red flower; there's a green flower on the other.
When the rose people gather at the grave, Rosa begins to sing Amazing Grace. All the other roses join in. Each time the wind blows more of their remaining petals go swift along with the wind. When Rosa does a solo, Helga tosses her bright rose body into the earth and she rests there on top of the casket through all eternity.
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