Faded Rose Tattoo

AI image generated using Bing’s Copilot Image Designer, with additional photo manipulation by Betty Dobson

she’s like her faded rose tattoo
youth’s sigil on her breast
paled from the center
color worn away
with the flesh
petals fallen
or plucked
in fits of love
<love me not>
her withered stem
bowed before time
and distended leaves
courted only by gravity
tempted by the blade
pruning and grafting
(winter’s harbinger)
like wiring the bud
for two more days’
worth of show, illusion
cast in a rose-cut image