Red Roses in Winter

Jennifer Gawinski Cuming

The first iteration of this poem was originally published in Persephone Literary Magazine Summer 2026, Issue 3.

Since you were lost to us
this world of daffodils
and magnolia blossoms
has flooded in my grief

I should bring sunflowers—
now that only mud remains
but their petals are too bright
the crows would pluck their seeds
they would die with you

Mauve orchids
fair forget-me-nots—
hues you loved and wore—
for beauty, for love, for memory—
too fragile for the coming frost

There is rosemary for remembrance
its needles would endure the blizzard
the petals would shrivel
their delicate blue
fading from view

Only red roses for you
most handsome—
long-stemmed, bound in black
laid before your headstone

In the ice they would endure
and at first thaw
bleed into the ground

My occasional offering of flowers
never enough

I must deliver them
into your hands—
myself

Dig up the earth
Break the lock that seals us apart
Hold your body to mine
Warm you
with what little heat I have left
Kiss you
with blue lips

Let the scent of crushed petals
cling to our hands

I would walk through deserts
and thorns
Climb every mountain
Gondola the River Styx
Tug at heaven’s shuttered gates
just to press them
into your palm

Not even stone—
can keep me from you

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Jennifer Gawinski Cuming
Jennifer Gawinski Cuming writes poetry that explores memory, desire, and emotional extremes, often bending conventional boundaries of intimacy and grief.  Her work experiments with form to mirror emotional intensity.