Leaping Rose Just as I pass the corner block (verdant, wild, With lost garden), an unexpected sight Strikes me: the autumn sky flawlessly bright, A single red rose, unreconciled To fading fate, lifts up its bold head Towards steel-blue infinity and yearns, So I think, to find the centre where all turns— Haven beyond wars, plagues and dread. Something in me leaps high as well. The fence and I are rusted. Wooden posts, Weathered until they seem like falling ghosts, Mimic my legs, but in my soul there sounds a bell. Nigel Jackson Monologue Homage to Rudyard Kipling After “The…