sub rosa

Today's word is

sub rosa

Well, look at that!  Why, yes, it is an adverb.  And it's also a phrase, not a word, both in the language of origin (Latin) and in English.

Well, I'll be.  It's a miracle of spelling, and right in time for the holidays.

Enjoy!

*****
Wednesday, November 8, 2006, 8:50 p.m.

Still filling in from notes unearthed from almost a year ago.

Zoë stalks
the local wildlife
sub rosa, she thinks,
and truly, but not just --

under the rose,
the wild creeper
and the cultivated hedge,
among the mints,
skirting the butterfly bush,

wherever the tiny go
about their vulnerabilities.

The silence of
her gleaming white
paws is mitigated
by the mercy of my
neighbours' foresight,
a silver bell on a
pink collar.

Still she acts
surprised every time
her name is called
in a tone
which brooks
no mischief,
no misdemeanor --

"Zoë, I see you." --

and scampers away
from under the rose
to under the yew,
crouching in denser shadows,
unaware 'til the next
time she hears her name
that she is still not invisible
to the law of my yard,

me.