For once I wish for time to pass

Just to heal the waiting that seems to last

I yearn to grow wiser so that I can feel the sweet wind

Because to be young and know of too much is promiscuous sin

I have broken commandments in the past, but this one is grand

Stepped over, past the ocean, and sucken deep into hot sand

Yet this warm burning seems to chill me

Keeps me alive and never kills me

An old thorned rose has plucked me from the soil with its bare paw

It poked me but never drew blood,  yet it opposes the law

I don’t concept why, I tell you this rose is different! It is bizarre

O’ you’ll never find another like it, trust I’ve searched near and far

This rose makes me open vile black poison to drink that fills my white womb

Yet I never die, the fumes of its petals awaken and lift me from my bleak tomb

This rose makes me grip the sharpest dagger and twist it into my broken heart

Yet I never die or hurt, but the thorns of its stem makes my heart one from its parts

This rose makes me hike to the highest cliff and step off, a million feet I fall

Yet I never die or hurt or crash, the roots of the rose pull me back up, I fly, I am tall

But for an unknown problem, it is forbidden to deal with a rose

No one will have to be executed if no one knows

For i possess secrets that stay hidden under the sun above

People wonder and ask but I’ll never tell, that I carry forbidden love

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Jasmine Tanui Who is she? Everyone within a grasp of her writings wonders who she might be. Her scripts lift the dullness of the reader, leaving the people who have read it wanting more. She writes to please herself but the words on the paper are never selfish. Reading her poetry is like knowing her. You know her greatest fears and her roots of happiness all from the letters she forms into words. You feel her sadness and celebration. Her writings make her indestructible. She is Jasmine Tanui, sometimes known as Jemutai, her native name. She is a 19-year-old, African American girl with Kenyan roots.