The Rose

A Grimm’s Fairy Tale
Adapted by Gabriele Sass

Europe’s somber forests stood
Spread through lands of mythic lore
Midst the clearings and the woods
Hidden stood the cabin door

Near the home a girl was singing
In the frosty air of morn
In a basket wood was bringing
To a fire, to keep warm

“Mother, I will search on yonder,
Where the forest is most steep,”
Said the child and went to wander
Through the wooden thicket deep

So much timber did she find
That she could not carry all
And was happy when a kind
Golden boy came by to haul

All her timber to the dwelling
Down the slope there walked the pair
When she turned, there was no telling
Cause the boy, he was not there

Neither sister nor her mother
Would believe the boy she’d seen
“Oh my child, it must be other,
or perhaps a lovely dream”

Days would pass in winter wonder
And the world around them froze
Time again the girl would wander
‘Till the boy gave her a rose

“Tell your mother, I will come,
To her dwelling some day soon,
On that morn will shine the sun
And this rose will be in bloom”

Full of love and happiness
Was the lass as she went home
Told her mother she’d been blessed
And would no more be alone

Days she waited by the window
With the rose perched on a ledge
Winter dreams through snow and dayglow
Golden boy would be her match

Then one morning by the bed
Stood her mother, full of doom
As she saw her child was dead
And the rose – it stood in bloom.