ROSES FOR ROSE STREET

Leaving Berkeley Horticultural Nursery

we turned left on Rose Street   

heading towards Shattuck Place

Our destination: Safeway

in the Gourmet Ghetto neighborhood

where Rose and Shattuck Place meet

I had never noticed roses on Rose Street

until that day

Before I had just paid attention

to the Japanese red maple trees

and California live oak trees

lined up in front of homes

with many different types of flowering bushes

planted on the edges of lawns

in front of living room windows

between McGee Avenue and California Street

I was thinking about how Rose Street got its name

as we pass by a house

with an all yellow hybrid tea rose bush

signs of platonic or dying love

in front of a house between Grant Street and Edith Street

I thought about the song “Yellow Rose of Texas”

that I learned about from a friend

at work who is from the Dallas area

and whose boss brought her a dozen yellow roses

as a thank you gift

“There’s a yellow rose in Texas, that I’m going to see.

Nobody else could miss her, not half as much as me.

She cried so when I left her, it like to broke my heart,

And if I ever find her, we nevermore will part.”

Then I saw a large shingled house  

between Josephine Street and Grant Street

with a large light pink hybrid tea rose

a sign of sympathy and admiration

Now when we pass by

I check for the large, bald eagle

painted under the roof on the Josephine Street side of the house

and the painted squirrel on the Rose Street side

and red and green jalapeno peppers

The house is a Western stick style house

a sign of the Arts and Crafts Movement

In between Milvia Street and Bonita Avenue

I saw many climbing roses in front of homes

in a variety of different colors: red, pink, yellow and white

At the Men’s Faculty Club on the U.C. Berkeley campus

where we celebrated Mom’s birthday

I asked a long time family friend, John Roberts

who is a landscape architect

how Rose Street got its name

He replied that the developers named it

after they killed the roses

in order to build the street

It seems as if the Rose Street residents

from Sacramento Street to Henry Street

are making up for all the roses that were killed

so they can live in beautiful homes

beside this busy Berkeley thoroughfare