Unripe Flower

• Bayan Arafeh, Grade 11
• Poetry
• 2018

Her belly swelled for nine months long -
As a flower blooms for the spring,
So did her many emotions blossom,
As she tickled, and cuddled her first and unborn love.

She dreamt of the laughs, snuggles and tears,
Yet her dreams remained just that.
Her bud was still, like no spring breeze would come to tickle its tiny toes,
It would leave this world before it ever came into it.

Her heart cried unripe mournful tears, she felt it in her chest: so tight,
Like a malignant cluster with fragile petals aching to be nourished once more,
Its vines slowly creeping over her ribs, her body,
Draining every last drop of contentment, desiring only melancholy,
And yearning for its return. The roots pushing down on her belly,
Making that butterfly feeling of excitedness that once consumed her,
Become that wobbly feeling of anguish that lingered unwelcome.