Winter Rose by J. S., E. Granby, CT

I dream of creating a rose that blossoms in the chill of winter. It will have scarlet petals that stand stoically on a thorny green stalk as it sways with the winter wind. Crimson skin made deeper by the frost, standing out against the whiteness, rendered immobile as it kisses the icy air. Fields of soldiers dressed in red; their battleground, white and frigid. They shall possess the scent of June, that I may trudge up snow-laden hills and bend to fill my soul with summer. Their thorns will be so strong, a weapon no hand can touch for fear a piercing wound might send red splatters upon the pure soft carpet.

I dream often as I sit under the summer skies and marvel at the immensity of the heavens. I dream someday to float to the stars, touch diamonds that beckon me to come to their velvet background. I reach to touch their glitter now and grab emptiness instead. Such a short distance, I want to rise and go dance among the stars, spin circles around the moon. I dream to reach and catch a falling star as it descends to meet my soul and hold it very close and sparkle through the night.

Some say that it's fatuous to dream a dreamer's dream, to reach for things that seem so distant and try to bring them near. If I am without wisdom in the aspirations I have in heart, I stand among great men who followed their hearts and turned their heads to those who taunted, "That's ridiculous!" How absurd to write a symphony that you could never hear, but that did not stop Beethoven. How many men, even today, think Darwin's Theory of Evolution preposterous? Where would we be if Edison hadn't tried and tried again? Einstein, Faraday, Ford, Franklin, Galileo, van Gogh, Koch, Mozart, Newton, Pasteur, Roentgen, da Vinci, and Wilbur and Oliver Wright all thwarted their doubters and went on to make their dreams come true. So do not attempt to take my dreams away no matter how ludicrous. Allow me my incongruity that I may spend my life in search. I want to follow my dreams to frozen fields of red, red roses, or reach to meet dancing stars that beckon me and never be afraid to search too far or reach too high to make my dreams come true. I won't give away my dreams, for the future depends on dreamers whose hearts are strong enough to forge winter storms and to reach for the stars.