The Feeding Habits of Roses

By Kerry Coast

I suggest to you, dear reader, that roses have agency. They select us, seduce us with colour and scent and even the sound of their leaves rustling; with the exciting danger of the thorn. They appeal to our sympathy, vanity, longing, doubt. We give blood.
I suggest that we use roses to represent Love because they do what Love does. Love and roses have complicated feeding habits. They feed on us.
Love selects its own animals at auction, and you are one of them. You hope You can expect to be rubbed with salt, soaked underwater, dressed in seasoning, seared. Parts of you will seem to be ruined, burnt, wasted, or chopped off. Why would you resist?

I say to you, Beloved, that I'm sorry this story is so hard to tell. I've written letters to you, to bring you round to my way of seeing. There are poems - sometimes the most direct route is not straight. In my gardening logs, I have beaten the metaphor like a blanket. I borrow fairy tales, for reference, and include some of my own journal entries for transparency.
From One to an Other.

Excerpt:
"When you accept, or finally notice, Love's agency in its own creation - and if you believe in the importance of love - then you can be confident about doing anything for Love. You can forgive yourself for saying such stupid, cheesy things to that other person. You see, they were not stupid: you said what love required to be said. It may seem embarrassing now, incomprehensible, but you were just communicating and you let yourself be guided by that force. The guy needed to hear it, for whatever reason, and Love is the ultimate chaperone.Wait, it's not true that you should do "anything" for love: not ALL is fair in love and war, and whoever originally said that was probably trying to promote sympathy for some totally unacceptable action he was planning out of spite, not out of love. Respect must prevail along Love's passage. The thing is, you must allow yourself to be used. One must allow oneself to be acted through; one must allow Love its little game, its large life, and its feeding habits. One must submit to becoming the food of Love, in this life. Why would you resist? Love knows best. You just admitted to believing in the importance of love and kept reading when I suggested Love is its own agent. I further suggest that shows reasonable doubt as to whether you know best, or Love does. And that you are better than passing-keen on Love, too."

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0995935432
• ISBN13: 9780995935433
• Release Date: January 2026
• Publisher: Electromagnetic Print
• Length: 256 Pages
• Weight: 0.66 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 5.5" x 8.5"