Afternoon Delight

D’verse Challenge: Poetics: Names of the rose. We are to write a poem or short story using at least five of these or other rose names, but not use the word rose.

List of rose names:
Afternoon Delight, Bordeaux, Brass Band, Cayenne, Desdemona, Ebb Tide, Eiffel Tower, Golden Gate, Mermaid, No Surrender, Peace, Penny Lane, Queen of Hearts, Quicksilver, Restless, Sea Foam, Summer Song, Tangles, White Wings, Windrush

My choices of rose names are italicized.

Afternoon Delight

Beneath the towering Golden Gate,
In the Restless Sea Foam,
Lives Desdemona, a Mermaid
With hair a mass of sea Tangles,
And lips the color of Bordeaux.
In her dreams of Afternoon Delight,
Her friend, White Wings, the dove,
Sang with her the Summer Song;
The song of Windrush and Peace
At the edge of the Ebb Tide.

Kaci Rigney Copyright 2026