Not All Roses (An Attempt to Improve Poetic Accuracy)

1. Color Identification

Roses are red
Violets are blue
No they're not

2. Orange is not the only

Roses are red
Violets are purple
Sugar is sweet
And slant rhymes are hurtful

3. A equals A

Roses are red
Violets are violet
Sugar is sweet
And you are you

4. Gardening

Roses are red
Violets are lavender
I've never been good
at botanical taxonomy

5. Netflix and Chill

Roses are red
Violets are flowers
Let's smooch on the couch
while we watch Fawlty Towers

6. Derriere

Roses are red
Violets are tiny
Sugar is sweet
And so is your heinie

7. Backpedaling

Roses are red
Violets are everywhere
This isn't a come-on
I just like your underwear

8. Grammar

Roses are red
Violets are delicate
Violet's a noun
The rest is the predicate

9. Aspartame

Roses are red
Violets are seasonal
Sugar is sweet
beyond what is reasonable

10. Special Request

Roses are red
Violets are blooming
Would you mind donning
this goldfish costuming?

11. Energy Saver

Roses are red
Violets are allergens
I'm thinking of changing
my lightbulbs to halogens

12. Invitation to Compromise

Roses are red
Violets are petalled
You're not getting younger
It's time that you settled

13. Confession

Roses are red
Violets are Violaceae
I lied when I said
I didn't know botany

14. Going to the Chapel

This is the church
This is the steeple
Open the doors
And so are you

15. Acceptance

Some roses are red
Today I saw tiny violets in a field near a playground
among wild daisies and mallow leaves. They were blue—
an unmistakable primary—five petalled, ivy leaved: violets,
not speedwells or baby eyes. White centers
which little girls poked. I watched to see if they'd weave
daisy crowns. They didn't
and I didn't teach them.
Perhaps they were sweet and perhaps I wasn't.