From the archives: Rose Fixer

First posted August 2005. Ponytails was almost eight, and Crayons (Lydia) was four.

This morning Ponytails and I were reading "The Sick Rose" from William Blake's Songs of Innocence and Experience.

Oh Rose, thou art sick!
The invisible worm
That flies in the night,
in the howling storm

Has found out thy bed
Of crimson joy.
And his dark secret love,
does thy life destroy.

Crayons climbed up on the couch and waved her hands over my head. She explained, "I'm putting some water on you."