Poetry Drawer: The mysteries of four seasons by Paweł Markiewicz

the dreamed winter
the storks sitting meekly in Africa
the butterfly frozen in the marvellous pond
mice write a gorgeous myth
a rural boy longs for the moonglow
witch apollonianly bewitched
a stunning world
in a moony way
I am full of druidic wizardries
You are like a dragonfly
We are singing

the dream-like spring
the storks are coming home so tenderly
the butterfly awoken in glory but sitting
mice write ovidian songs
a rural girl yearns for afterglow
in addition hex enchanted
a dazzling world
in a starlit way
I am shrouded in this cool mystery
You are such a firefly
We are trilling

the dreamy summer
the storks are nesting mayhap peacefully
the butterfly flying over becharmed garden
mice write Dionysian ode
an auntie is bent upon blue hours
the enchantress is conjured
amusing world
in a starry way
I wrapped in plethora of sorcery
You are Dionysian spider
We are chanting

the dreamful autumn
the storks are going to fly off musing
the butterfly dreaming just before coming death
mice write Apollo’s hymn
an uncle muses about cool star
the sorceress enraptured
such a cute world
in a moonlit way
I stay under a spell of tenderness
You are like a charmful bee
We caroling

Paweł Markiewicz was born 1983 in Siemiatycze in Poland. He is poet who lives in Bielsk Podlaski and writes tender poems, haiku as well as long poems. Paweł has published his poetries in many magazines. He writes in English and German.

You can find more of Paweł’s work here on Ink Pantry.

Poetry Drawer: Parliament Aqua 5 Cigarettes: Elegy to Johnny in “One” by Metallica: Sweating Dasani by David Kim

Parliament Aqua 5 Cigarettes 

his heart palpitates with each resounding 
pulse resonating through the sharp,
pastel room 

in which his chest rises and flattens 
as the waves retreat into the pores of the shore   
with the tears of mine staining the meshed layers
that wrap his arms
tightly
as a cicada in despair

droning for my name,
for the touch of my hands to interlace once again, 
a mishap under the knife
motionless with skull left behind 
he lives.

in a coma, ready to sink away
            I pray.

I pray to let him live, to not 
walk but breathe, to 
sleep but not wake, 
to take me to the past so I could be… 

smothered the dying smoke off the tray 
smashed the screen off the nights 
embraced him a final despairing time 
to snuff the waning flame that sits upon the
tepid pool of wax 

warmth under the damp sheets,
machine breathing,
chest rising. 

I gaze at his darkened silhouette
walking to the evening sun

knowing that he is dreaming. 
a life to undo 
the blue he has stained. 

Elegy to Johnny in “One” by Metallica  

ice bullets 
piercing through the stifling heat 
foliage meshing over the placid blue sky 
lying there. 

hold my breath as I wish for death 
fluttering down my eyes 
the dirt from the mine 
As the chime of silence 
rings
nothing is real but pain 

mesh over face 
bed under corpse 
taken my arms, my legs, my soul 
left alone in a chamber of my own
I can’t see but myself 
over and over and 
Over.

the soft angelic voice 
above in the world unseen 
murmurs in dreams 
as what seems unreal in light 
seems real in darkness 

can’t seem to remember 
the lips of the girl 
as gone arms cradle a final time 

back and forth
             vibrating my mind
all is hell in living death
             now the world is gone,
I’m just

One. 

Sweating Dasani 

that morning hour

water, in crystal streams, softly skim 
the ridges of my fingers 
as I stare into her, 

eyes as lucid 
as tap flowing in docile funneled vapors 
vivid as the bursting of a firefly 
twirling in the damp midnight air
she was, 

the flickering of a candle
wavering in that, dusky room 
waiting to be reached. 

I remember the red streaks in her hair,
the supple lips of her kiss
the warmth as she pressed 
each breath eroded in elastic ocean waves 

it was first Love. 

the bottle slipping out my hand 
crashing, carelessly on the floor 
I saw 

the slicing of my life 
the spinning of my mind 

as eyes closed 

it was
                  it is
                  the dawn
                  where I
                  took flight
                  and tapped
                  the dis-
                 -tant light
of Bliss.

David Kim is a high school student attending an International School in South Korea who has a passion for writing. He is currently working hard to build his portfolio for university applications. When he is not writing, David can be found listening to music, playing video games, or exploring new places in the city. He is excited to see where his writing journey takes him and hopes to share his work with others through your publication. 

Flash in the Pantry: The Stretch by Mehreen Ahmed

Even if I were to bark up the wrong tree, so be it as long as I am barking something. I don’t know how to climb a tree. Wrongs can’t be right until a climb has ensued. I slide many times before I correct my path. A really steep climb, all the way up, reaching out to save my children who lie here at the top.

Giants take my children from me and put them there. Too strong for me, I can’t fight back. No big deal for them ’cause they don’t need to climb the tree; standing on the ground, they simply roll ’em over to the nestled leaves. But I must stand my ground if I were to win this war. It is a war now that they have taken them from me.

I hold on to the bark for dear life. As much as I want, I can’t let go of it. I don’t know how to. Fear is all around me. Fear is swelling inside of me; my children, taken from me. I slide. I slide all the way down. The bark is flimsy. It comes off easily. Just as well, I spring right up, get back on with the climb. My nails dig deep, clawing into its russet skin.

Some bark comes straight off and exposes a stark tree which in turn shows a clear pathway to me. The tree gives me some stability, as I get my bearings back on it. Half way up, I hear my children sing, “I love you Mummy. My only sweet Mummy. I love yoouu when the days are sunny. In winter, I love you some more”. Sweats run down my forehead. Trepidations rise as I hear their voice. They sing out loud; I yell that I am coming to rescue them. They tell me that the time is right now, ’cause the monsters are out to pick berries in the woodlands.

Time is of the essence. How soon before the giants return? Amla in Bangla, and rich in Ayurvedic properties, the giants know about it only too well. They are after the ripened fruit—the reds, not the greens. They have a huge appetite to whet. I inch up and slide back; quick to resume, I stay the course. Gently treading this time, afraid to fall. The tree seems to be growing on me. I feel dwarfed against it, obviously unlike the giants as tall as the tree.

What better lure than to secure my children’s destiny from the giants who would make a meal out of their tender bones, and red gooseberry even before the evening is out? This impossible climb bruises me from head to toe. Lean times, a lean tree. Weary of the chase, I turn my gaze upon the woodlands. From this height, I can’t see the gooseberry anymore; minutely microscope, they seem to disappear on the stretch.

The tree is tall; too tall for me. Giants have no patience, and perspire in vain. I see clearly how distraught they are, trampling the shrubbery in anger because they don’t see it. The fruit is massacred underneath their giant feet. Towering tall, they don’t see what I see. I see my children. They see me. I make them a few gooseberry pies picked from the same shrubbery.

Multiple contests’ winner for short fiction, Mehreen Ahmed is an award-winning Australian novelist born in Bangladesh. Her historical fiction, The Pacifist, is an audible bestseller. Included in The Best Asian Speculative Fiction Anthology, her works have also been acclaimed by Midwest Book Review, and DD Magazine, translated into German, Greek, and Bangla, her works have been reprinted, anthologized, selected as Editor’s Pick, Best ofs, and made the top 10 reads multiple times. Additionally, her works have been nominated for Pushcart, botN and James Tait. She has authored eight books and has been twice a reader and juror for international awards. Her recent publications are with Litro, Otoliths, Popshot Quarterly, and Alien Buddha.

You can find more of Mehreen’s work here on Ink Pantry.

Pantry Prose: The Night That Never Ended by Ghulam Mohammad Khan

He had hoped the night would end his torment. It didn’t. He thought the storm in his mind might calm with the dawn. But the storm raged on. Standing rigid behind his gun, his lifeless gaze locked on the barrel jutting out from the narrow window of the muddy bunker, perched high on the mountaintop.

In the beginning, he found a strange comfort in staring at the barren, lifeless slope on the enemy’s side, its dry earth stretching into an endless desolation. The enemy pickets, hidden among the distant rocky precipices, visible only through his binoculars, rarely troubled him. But the world beyond those jagged peaks—untouchable, unreachable—haunted him more than any threat of war. Oddly, their own side of the mountain unsettled him the most. The lush green slope, dense with deodar trees, the shimmering stream weaving through the valley below—it all felt like a scene from someone else’s life. A life he no longer belonged to. Yet the tiny houses, no larger than matchboxes from his vantage, always drew his eye. There was something about them. He couldn’t say what. Maybe it was the thought that people still lived inside those fragile shells, even while he stood alone, staring at a world that no longer made sense.

He wanted to squeeze the trigger, to empty the entire LMG into the misty mountainside. Reload. Fire again. Anything to silence the restless storm inside him. But nothing would settle. His anger simmered just beneath the surface, a volatile mix of frustration and suffocating boredom. The night stretched on, endless and consuming, swallowing him in its choking darkness—a darkness that burned like fire, thick with smoke he couldn’t escape.

In the filthy, abandoned barrack at the far corner of the camp, his comrades would be gathered—drinking, gambling, losing themselves in the haze of liquor and late-night revelry. He would imagine the door still ajar, the stench of spilled blood thickening the air. He could see his father, the hypochondriac, pacing madly, unable to bear the sight. He thought of him, and the memory sent a twisted satisfaction through him. He could almost hear the echo of his father’s frantic mutterings.

But none of it mattered. Not the men, not the barracks, not the maddening silence. The only thing that held his focus now was the gun. His fingers twitched on the trigger, drawn to the cold, familiar steel. It fascinated him, how easy it would be to let loose, to unleash all that rage in a single violent burst.

He wanted to scream. To tell them all—his comrades, his father, anyone—that they didn’t know, that no one could understand how hard it was to be him, to be stuck in this place, in this skin, under this endless, heavy sky. But the words wouldn’t come. All that filled him was the blackness of the night, sinking deeper into his heart, his mind, his soul.

And still, he couldn’t fire. The darkness only deepened.

Some things aren’t meant to be, some are beyond your control, and others—utterly unnecessary—are thrust upon you to break you. Bloody fate. No, not fate—it was helplessness that wasn’t part of the plan. It was forced there. A soldier has no fate of his own. It’s shaped for him in the grandest of words, dressed up in promises of purpose, but concealing the bitter truth beneath—the agony.

What better place to amplify his suffering than this barren hilltop, overlooking a few distant enemy pickets on one side and a valley on the other—so still, so detached from the world that even the small cluster of Gujjars seemed forgotten by time. He had his answer: there was no better place because, after that night, he knew he had nowhere to go.

Fifteen days and nights—that’s all. Then he would return. It felt like a cruel transaction: sacrificing something precious just to cling to something that had become a necessity. He felt trapped between the two, caught in the limbo of a twisted bargain. Bloody fate wasn’t written in his stars; it was abandoned here, on this godforsaken hill.

There was something deeply wicked—at least, disgustingly unfair—about trying to justify anyone’s misery by calling it fate. It was easier to blame fate than admit the truth: that none of this should have happened. And yet here he stood, his fate written in the nothingness of this place, while the world spun on, indifferent.

He had loved everything about the marriage—the preparations, the way tradition blended with longing, how emotion intertwined with involvement, excitement with anticipation. The house had been alive, glowing with lights that, in the night, seemed like a flame burning bright in the dark furnace of the world. Everything overflowed with warmth, every corner brimming with life.

Now, back in the cold isolation of the mountain wilderness, that warmth felt like a distant memory. His body ached, and his soul felt hollow. This place, which once held some purpose, now seemed devoid of meaning. The endless days blurred into weeks, weeks into months, as the wilderness stretched out before him, tired and lifeless. He hadn’t noticed before how utterly empty it was. The enemy side, often shrouded in impenetrable mist for weeks at a time, had become as distant as his own sense of duty. Even the valley below, with its stream cutting through the foothills, felt as unreachable as home.

The separation changed him. It warped his perceptions—about duty, about his nation and its bond with this barren land, about marriage, home, and even his beloved wife. Doubt gnawed at his mind. In the loneliness of his cold bunker, sitting behind the big gun, he began to realize that doubting was its own form of journey. A slow, painful descent into self-realization, into the fragility of self-worth. He imagined the bullets in the magazine rusting, just like his own purpose.

He thought now that perhaps all this—the grand ideals, the noble duty, the sacrifices—meant nothing. Perhaps they had never meant anything at all, just illusions propped up to give shape to something hollow. And maybe they would remain that way for ages, lost to time and meaning, continuing on as empty echoes.

Integrity? To hell with it. Nothing, no one – not even the indifferent elements of nature – remains consistent. Inconsistency is woven into the fabric of existence. Yet we humans crave stability, especially in relationships. We demand it and cling to it, despite knowing that nothing endures unchanged. Yes, for as long as one can, one should hold onto it. But even the strongest relationships, the ones built on trust and loyalty, inevitably buckle under the weight of inconsistency. His doubts, once quiet whispers, grew into an obsession, filling the barren wilderness of his soul. The desolate landscape around the bunker only served to amplify the inner turmoil. He withdrew from the rowdy late-night gatherings in the abundant barracks, no longer drinking, no longer gambling. He stopped caring about the numbers in his salary account or what remained of his connection to the world outside.

The thought of betrayal gnawed at him like a wound that refused to heal. His mobile phone, once a link to the distant world, now seemed like a mocking presence, incapable of guiding him through the shadows of his mind. Doubt, he realised, was a journey – a descent into the primal, crude essence of one’s being. And it terrified him.

The doubt became real. Palpable. Like a river swelling with the pressure of a coming flood, it built within him, threatening to burst its banks. Betrayal – the one thing he couldn’t bear. The one thing he saw, he would never tolerate – loomed over him like a spectre. Sometimes, alone in the bunker, he wept behind the big gun, feeling smaller, more insignificant with every sob. A man lost, shaded by the large hat that he pulled down to his chin as if trying to hide from the world and from himself.

The doubt grew unbearable. And so, one night, without telling anyone, he slipped away from the camp. Two days later, in the dead of night, he murdered them both in their bed. His suspicions, his fears, had been true all along. He left the dagger buried in her stomach, a twisted sense of justice searing through him as he made his way back to the mountain wilderness.

The camp did not report him missing. They found him, questioned him, but never spoke of it. He didn’t care. His soul had been hollowed out, and the man he once was had vanished. The night never ended for him after that. He was trapped in it, suffering, endlessly suffering. And when the weight of it all became too much, when he could no longer endure the darkness pressing in on every side, he turned the gun on himself in that cold muddy bunker.

As the final shot echoed across the empty mountains, he screamed, “Oh great mountains! I am sorry. I couldn’t protect you.”


Ghulam Mohammad Khan was born and raised in Sonawari (Bandipora); an outlying town located on the wide shores of the beautiful Wullar Lake. Ghulam Mohammad believes that literature is the most original and enduring repository of human memory. He loves the inherent intricacies of language and the endless possibilities of meaning. In his writing, he mainly focuses on mini-narratives, local practices and small-scale events that could otherwise be lost forever to the oblivion of untold histories. Ghulam Mohammad considers his hometown, faith, and family to be the most important things to him. He writes for a few local magazines and newspapers. His short story collection titled The Cankered Rose is his first major forthcoming work.

You can find more of Ghulam’s work here on Ink Pantry.

Poetry Drawer: when I think love: Flower Language: Praise by Yoon Park

when I think love

when I think love, I think
crosswalks. crosswalks at an intersection.
intersections folding into home.
       bakeries. picking up sourdough
       at a le pain asser. crosswalks folding crisply
       like the crackling of sourdough starter.
                      I think rich. downed & drunk on awkward street signs.
                      korean spelled to sound like fancy french.
           out-of-business oscar motels. napkins bunched
           under rolled-up pasta. poor imitations of gelato.
restaurants dedicated entirely to seaweed soup. restaurants
that live. restaurants that forgot to live. overhyped soba noodles & udon.
     people. visiting from other intersections.
     people standing in line for cheap coffee. people
     overcompensating richness with cold yogurt blends.
                   mothers with their children. children with
                   convenience store rice triangles & unauthentic
                            yellow banana milk. mothers with half-assed
                            plastic cup white wine. crossing
   a crosswalk. at night: unlived underground
   karaoke bars. sweaty men slapping backs
    & smoking through tobacco teeth.
I think love in day & night. intersections
licking corners with stray cat piss stains. a dog
barking somewhere a streetlamp lives.
  women enjoying unadulterated drunkenness.
  businessmen that kill neon streetlights. children
  in bed. adults slipping into each breath.
  the people of montmartre;
              in this moment they are everywhere
              all at once. we wander like strays. I am born
                        as a stranger in a new
                        intersection
                                   everyday.

Flower Language

Gone, I whisper and walk towards
the bed of belladonnas, close enough
to listen to their gentle

inquisitive conversation. I listen
to their arms fan widely above
and over their mystery fruits:

magnolias, singing. They indulge
in noiseless chatter while I swaddle
in dahlias overwinter crisp

newspaper. The children have made a home
out of miniature sunflowers— only
ones that could afford real blooms

instead of the silk imitations
sold in the supermarket. The wind praises
the gray foliage and the knee-length weeds.

Lavender: the height of a spine
and the way it tickles the sky on a whim
grounds the stalks into more purple

than they are. The pine with hipbone steps
turns enwrapped in a fragrance— breathe.
The garden is nothing concrete

but a moment all at once.
I bury my nails in clay ripples
thoroughly spoiling myself

with Earth.

Praise

Praise the stories.
Praise the stories I read
and tell, subtly.

Praise the night.
Praise the night beneath
little black shell bodies.

Praise the waters
under the caps of my shoulders,
under consciousness.

Wrap real rain
around my finger, let it
sluice down the sidewalk.

Praise the parting
of eyes and the turning
of the sea, they are altering

my world.

Yoon Park is a dynamic high school student enrolled at Seoul Academy in Seoul, South Korea. She channels her creative energy into writing and visual art and finds joy in expressing herself through these mediums. Additionally, she has a passion for music and spends her spare time playing the piano or the guitar. Her dedication to her craft has earned her recognition and admission into the prestigious Iowa Young Writers Studio, the Adroit Journal Summer Mentorship Program, and Kenyon Review Young Writers Workshop.

Poetry Drawer: Dignity: Perfection: Fly by Seungmin Kim

Dignity

To bestow beauty and lambency
For he will continually lust 
And be doomed to regress
Living dignity may dawn anew

Perfection

To bestow grace and purity
For he will continually lust 
And be doomed to regress
Living perfection may dawn anew

Fly

The feathers, they fell with starlight
Baptizing them one with grace and disorder
With the lambency of your final flight
You leave behind love in your wake

Fear not the earth and sea beneath you
For you shall fear only fear itself
And though your wings may be clipped
Even Icarus flew in his last moments

Be christened in the chime of your
Final hour, the shine of your 
Blood sweat and tears may christen you
Human, even as the vestiges of life leave

A celebration of life is not true 
Without the clouds of finality on the horizon
Remember your fortune, as you wander the skies
For one can only live for having died

Seungmin Kim is a diligent scholar who is enrolled in an international school in Hong Kong. He is meticulously curating his compilation of written works to fortify his candidacy for admission to esteemed academic institutions.

Poetry Drawer: Dangerous Domino Effect: Pulled In: Sea of Sharks by Grace Lee

Dangerous Domino Effect

I am atop a wispy golden plain
with a colourful ombré pattern

But that time is so short.
There is danger, too.

Enduring loneliness and cruelty.
A dangerous domino effect of consequences will be set off.

Pulled In

Maroon red, lilac purple, amber gold.
Aurora colours on the swooping wings
Of fragile butterflies. It jumps from leaf
To leaf and flashes its grand wings to watchers.
A beautiful bright view, the watchers say.

If only their eyes shifted to the side:
A moth with dull greyed wings sits on a wall.
It is the dark sky—twinkling stars surround it.
It is the canvas on which butterflies shine. 

Its eyes spot flickering red flames on candles
With shining vivid shades like sunset glow.
Dull wings take flight, petite feet land on the
Melting wax stand. It tiptoes closer, then
Too close.

Flame touches, then spreads, then envelopes it.
Fire eats its wings, thus forming deadly sheens.
Fire steals its limbs in a colossal blur.
Remains then sprinkle down as smoky ash.
A startling bright view as it fully burns.

Now, I approach the dark tight alley that
May be my flame. My mind is on fire, and 
My daring burns away. But people flutter
Around me, mingling, giggling, and make me 
A shadow like dull grey smoked ashes, yet
I am pulled in.

Sea of Sharks

The hallways are crowded, my mind is filled 
My hand twists the knob, my eyes take in the view
The sea of sharks awaits me in their seats 
All giggling and whispering—most likely at me

I spot the rainbow outside the window, 
Nothing like the storm inside 
Both the classroom and my head 
As I long to run and hide

Grace Lee, a high school student in Seoul, South Korea, is passionate about words. Whether crafting stories or poems, she blends her unique perspective with the vibrant culture of Seoul. Excited to contribute to the literary landscape, Grace’s writing reflects the universal themes of adolescence in a big city.

Poetry Drawer: In Love with You: Enchanted Forest: A Celestial Journey: The Neighbourhood by Dongeon Kim

In Love with You

You will never be lonely
You’re the one that I can’t deny with my heart 
Got you stuck up in my heavy head
Cheers to the precious moment we met
Cheers to the earnest wish you were here
Every hour, every minute, every second, I’ll think of you

Enchanted Forest

I was able to see
tree branches making a shelter above me
The comfy grass gave me a mattress to sleep

Bright sunshine was rising up to the sky
the atmosphere filling up with light
on the forest, giving a beautiful glow

Then my eyes met the birds flying in the sky
Flying towards me, leaving rainbow trails behind
They stood on my shoulder, their colourful fur glowing

A Celestial Journey

running with a useless white suit
adding weight
lasers were passing right by

I’ve seen the hope
empire falls, and the new world forms
rest with my fellow friends

run and run until I am out of energy
what was the rumble
Thought the world was in peace

The Neighbourhood

This is where I played with my friends
Chasing each other with bicycles
Where I ran into my friends without a blink

This is where my friend lived
Our imagination playing together
The large house granting us a smile
Those were the good old days filed with grins

This is where I lost my fellow bicycle
A bicycle which afforded me freedom
The place where I wasn’t allowed to play

This is where I lost myself
All that was misery
Eventually finding the way back home

This is where I first opened my eyes
The time was full of mystery
All I could do was cry
Now I can do a whole lot more

This is where all the goods are sold
I bought a bunch
But it would disappear with someone’s munch

This is where I suffered
The culprit of multiplying -1 to my life
The infinite loop of studying
All I learned is the pain of education

This is where I got my happiness
The place I was free
The place I could only release my stress
The place I could meet my friends far away

This is the place where I bought my second happiness of life
The grey glossy figure
The apple on its top
After, my life started to change once again in the positive way

This is where I will play again
Allowing me go back to the past
When it was the good old days

This is where I will study
Works are harder and harsher
All I wanted was freedom from studying
But all I got was more restrictions

This is where I wanted to stay
The price was high
The money I couldn’t earn until I die
I gave it all up all with a sigh

This is where I will die
The perfect place for death
I would imagine the after life
This is the same place where I was born

Dongeon Kim is currently in 6th grade and attends an international school in Seoul, South Korea. He likes to read both graphic novels and chapter books. He also likes to play games and socialize with his friends. 

Poetry Drawer: Shield: Your dreams: 917 by Jin-Woo Ahn

Shield

Every human being 
has something of value,
Bonded with

An opaque screen that’s a couple inches
in front of our eyes
Dangling and gradually sinking 

resorted to an intricate string of false
and misleading claims,
But staying safe with

some sort of deflector shield
As if dropped
into some dead space in your brain

Your dreams
 
I’m so gifted at finding
Finding your dreams come true

Any time I count sheep
That’s the only time I wake

I put my hand on the stove
Blunt pain was everything I felt

It was all a dream

917

This where all the lights are broken down
               Into pieces.

This where the colour grey gives hope to a man.
This is where the concrete silver bleaches him white.
This where nothing is served cooked; but raw.
This where men can say what they want,
              it’s their cry, not the clash of metals.

This where fairness kills a man,
But allows the equity of fancying. I think I wondered
Here, but not now.
This where a glimpse of a night turns real.
This is where too sweet for adults to eat.
This where the thoughts are the most innocent
              But the dirtiest.

I was short, standing there.

This where the sun never drops,
Doesn’t matter if it’s shaped by us.
This where I built my signpost.
This is where I return.

This is where I saw a seal in the middle of green.
This where it swam, and danced.

Jin-Woo Ahn is a student at an international school in Seoul, where he explores the intersections of culture, identity, and language through poetry. Drawing inspiration from his multicultural upbringing, Jin-Woo’s work reflects a deep appreciation for the universal human experiences that connect us all. As an emerging poet, he is passionate about fostering community and collaboration within the literary world.

Poetry Drawer: rusted deer will dream: a cherry plant that never blooms: invincible flower by Elisa Min

rusted deer will dream

In a new garden I have the biggest hands
rusted deer will dream, and they will envy it 
Those are my summers

i’d wanted to be seventeen that month in the garden
In that garden, branches swing high
It talks and builds with me

I guess i own this garden
some hours in the playground
it became dirty to me

What about an unafraid tree? reckless
used to slide with a fantasy
times with my sister used to always fly 

we needed to plant more
scared about fading on my own 
All i see is a stain while seeing my grandparents climb 

The cherry could believe it has already bloomed 
I begged to ride and I couldn’t imagine
Could my apartment see these verses? 
 
our grandpa wants to see flowers and visit me
My grandma swears she read the bible 
all house no garden 
  

a cherry plant that never blooms 

The garden has a swing set with elephants on them 
It is rusted and old, 
The colour is fading away. 

The garden has a cherry plant that never blooms 
My grandpa swears that he saw a flower on it once. 
I don’t think anyone believes him. 

The garden has a dirty slide. 
I used to ride it with my sister 
Now I’m afraid that the dirt will stain my clothes. 

There is a tree in the garden. 
It was always taller than me as a child, 
It was even taller than my parents 
I would climb it, seeing how high I could go 
Weaving in and out of the branches, being reckless 
Unafraid. 

Now whenever I climb the tree, 
The bugs bother me 
I get soil on my hands 
I don’t want my clothes to spoil. 

A couple times a month 
my grandma sends me pictures of deer 
That she saw in the garden 
She sends me bible verses with them. 

As a child, I envied the garden. 
I begged my parents to let us move to a house with a yard. 
I could not imagine being stuck in an apartment
My dream house became a house with the largest garden
I could plant my own flowers, have my own pets,
Build my own playground
I wanted to be just like my grandpa 

Once in a few summers I go visit the garden
Nine hours on a plane is all it takes to meet my grandparents
All my grandma talks about is the garden. 
All my grandpa talks about is the new flower on the side. 

I don’t envy the garden anymore, though
I think i’d be fine with living in an apartment
I don’t need the biggest garden or seventeen dogs
I guess the garden in my mind was a fantasy.
Temporary.

invincible flower 

The cold kills 
Slicing through my veins and 
Crashing into my skin 
Tears stain the floor

The cold hurts, 
Scrape your knee on the snow and it will bleed 
White snow flooded with red, 
Traces of murder, 
And you wonder, what died here? 

In the coldest of winters 
Blooms the most beautiful flowers 

Winter is over now, 
And i’ve found that 
My tears have become seeds—- 
Planted in the ground, 
Ready to flourish 
Ready to blossom into the warm spring air 

The blood is now a red flower 
It does not die easily 
It lives through storms  
It can go without being watered 

In the most extreme conditions, 
My flower can thrive 
She can flourish, grow faster than any other flower 

When winter comes again 
I don’t need to be 
Scared 
Because when the cold kills 
When it hurts and it bleeds, 
I know that out of it i will get an invincible flower

Elisa Min is a seventh-grade student with a passion for poetry. She discovered her love for writing at a young age and enjoys exploring themes of nature, identity, and the human experience through her poetry. When she’s not writing, she can be found reading voraciously or spending time outdoors, drawing inspiration from the world around her. She is excited about the possibility of sharing her work with a wider audience.