Tres rosas y un clavel

Bolero-ranchera was the ideal vehicle for expressing this gift.

For once, I wanted to write a love song where nothing was withering, where nothing was a metaphor for loss, just a small garden handed over whole to someone you love. After other songs of mine built from thorns that outlive their petals and skies that weep, I needed one where the flowers could simply be flowers.

Naming them exactly, three roses and a carnation, mattered to me more than it probably should. “Don’t go picking favorites” is the line that matters most to me, because I didn’t want them ranked, didn’t want there to be one favorite flower. I let a little honesty slip in on purpose, “even if they carry the pain that is the essence of love,” because I truly don’t believe love worth giving comes without a cost, and I didn’t want the gift to pretend otherwise.

With that said, turn up the volume and fall in love with “Tres rosas y un clavel.”