About This Project
Thanks For The Rose – by Richard Gold
To the women of Mission Creek Corrections Center
Thanks for giving me a rose
After your Saturday performance
I was happy to help you with your writing.
You know this
But when the audience cried and applauded you
It was not because of the painful subjects of your writing,
About being betrayed by incestuous fathers,
Or about being brought low by drugs,
Or about your shame at letting down your children.
When the audience cried and applauded you,
It was because you were honest
At a level that exposed the deepest part of yourselves
The deepest hurt that includes the deepest love.
Thanks for giving me a rose.
You gave me much more.
I was so overwhelmed by your performance
That I asked Pat if I could follow her
On the drive home.
I was so affected
That after I followed Pat to the highway,
Insead of continuing home,
I followed her
When she drove off to get gas.
Thanks for giving me a rose.
This is what I want to tell you
As my good-bye.
I was so overwhelmed by your performance
That I was careless with the rose
Sorry.
I threw my jacket over it in the back of the car.
When I remembered it on Sunday night
I thought the rose was ruined.
It was bent over and the leaves were distorted.
But I trimmed the stem and put the rose
In water.
When I woke up on Monday morning
The rose was beautiful,
And the first thing I thought of
Was you.