Infatuation with the Black Rose

When I was a younger man in my early 20’s back in the 1990s, like many others, I spent most of my weekends in the clubs until the wee hours of the night. The music back then seemed so diverse and eclectic. Alternative rock, industrial, techno, trip hop and house all possessed immense power to influence and creatively inspire the youth of the day.

One particular Friday night, in the dead of winter, I recall straddling the edge of the dance floor and becoming mesmerized by one particular dark and mysterious member of the fairer sex, a genuine succubus of a goddess. There she was, hypnotizing me from the dance floor. I stood motionless in my tracks – completely infatuated. She was the perfect hybrid of Techno, Goth and Industrial – think Angelina Jolie (from Hackers) meets Lori Petty (from Tank Girl) meets Michelle Pfeiffer (from Batman Returns).

The very next day, after waking up from undoubtedly vivid dreams and fending off another routine hangover, I wrote the following piece in honor of my muse – the Black Rose. This was the first in a series I wrote in homage to her. The following is from January of 1997.

Black Rose

A rose, to symbolize your elegance, your grace, your beauty

Its structure, its form, stands so strong and so bold

Its power to awe bewilders my whole and drives me to a place I never knew

Nudging me ever so close, it enchants and forever enslaves my soul.

Black…

Black to symbolize my venture, into the unknown mystery that lay beyond your eyes

One step of blind hope and faith is all I have as my guide

The darkness is overwhelming, my survival seems bleak

I must continue into the blackness, knowing only to find that splinter of light, that I so desperately seek.

The hesitation, the unknown, are the twisting of its thorns

As I hold the stem of this black rose, thorns pierce mercilessly into my presence

I envision your face, your cold piercing glance at the end of the blackness

Reflecting deep inside myself only to realize, that my soul has just been taken.

Free In Thought, 2016 –