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.