Tulips

by Arantxa Villa

Tulips

second year audrey hamm

Have you ever walked around, trying to make little sound, yet the plates and cups from the kitchen cabinets come crashing down into screams of shattering glass? It’s because you’re a giant, and no matter how hard you try to just fit in and exist, your clumsy feet trip you up into messy… well, messes.

That’s how I feel at times. And it even is in places where I’d never thought I would feel like a giant in a small space. I just feel… overgrown.

I have some things from my childhood that I feel like I care less about now because of the distance or loss of consistency. I feel like sometimes I annoy my family or they are too worried about annoying me.

The barely-brought-to-life peonies roll their eyes at me. What do you mean? You are full of life and laughter. something else haha

My shadow shades the grass around me, am I ruining what could grow near? Am I preventing you from something? Thoughts running like a river. Sometimes, it hurts more to fight the words. So then, I let the water run until there is nothing left. 

It is truly incredible to think about how much we put ourselves through. The wars we weigh into, the people we let walk all over us, the…

Slowly, the sun shines on the river bend. Out of the earth, a tulip blooms. A radiant red.

It joins a bed of tulips by the river, ones that grow as a humble reminder of battles fought: sometimes confronting what you feel is the greatest of victories.

The water returns eventually with new rains, new cleansing, pain is now mending. I come back to Earth and the sun makes a small shadow around me, spreadings its rays to the tulips too. 

No matter what I face, I’m building a garden along the way.