Gardenia Girl


The bud rises from the pavement
White contrasted against the squalor
Spreading out
In its glory

The bunny haired girl
Peeking from the doorway
Had never seen or smelled
This sweetness before

She flits over the vacant lot
Like a butterfly looking for nectar
Past the pockmarked doorway
Of the project where she lives

She doesn’t worry about
The shots and glass scattered here
She thinks:”I only ask to be free,
The butterflies are free.

She pulls the blossom from the ground
A moment captured in time,
And places the blossom
In her hair.

Mama sits on a bench
Watching this scene unfold
As she beholds her daughter
To be a mirror of their lives.

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