Dear Blossom Girl

By Nethmi Dahanayake

Posted on October 1, 2024

Illustration title: Dear Blossom Girl

Illustration by: Phuong

Medium: Digital

Size: 1280 pixels x 720 pixels

Location: California

Year: 2024

She was a blossom. 

Every little while, she’d unfold herself. 

To reveal the truth, her true self. 

She hasn't fully bloomed yet, for she is still a bud –

Closed in, looking for already-found guidance.

She must guide her own mind and body. 

Though because she was a blossom, she was delicate. 

Rocks crushed her into wet paint; sticks dug deep holes in her skin

And people, oh people… Lovely beings with an ugly side hidden.

They would tear her skin, crush her petals, and leave her weak and immobile.

But some are nice, some want to help. 

They'd use her pigment to trap memories onto canvas. 

Their poking and prodding hurt her deeply,

But at least they would treat her as if she was their own kind. 

They’d gently repair her skin,

and she’d feel  like herself again. 

But most importantly, they'd fix the heart, the soul –

The core of everything.

All blossoms are beautiful. 

An elegant fragrance lighting one’s soul . 

However, inside a blossom–a bud–is where you’d find true beauty, dormant and folded.

Taking care of it will help it bloom into true beauty..

Sometimes I wish they did that for her…

Told her how precious she was to the world, 

how her story would make a difference 

if she just stayed. 

But no one took care of this blossom, 

for it has stayed, trapped in its bud. 

May I one day lay with you, my fellow blossom. 

Either me as a full flower, or as a bud like you, 

I shall lay beside you, 

in this place filled with others you've probably met by now, 

with my name engraved on a stone beside yours, 

which holds flowers of every kind. 

I hope to see you my friend,

My friend the blossom girl.

Description:

This poem is about a girl that we’d typically think is a person who lives life without any trouble. However, in reality, they have to deal with society breaking her apart. I used the idea of a blossoming flower to portray this. 

[Writing Editor: Christina Yan]

[The End]