The Act

Could anything be more beautiful?

**The Act**

*William Carlos Williams*

There were the roses, in the rain.
>

Don’t cut them, I pleaded.
>

They won’t last, she said.
>

But they’re so beautiful
>

where they are.
>

Agh, we were all beautiful once, she said,
>

and cut them and gave them to me
>

in my hand.