Blossom~ By Rachel Oshiro

He told me that I was the most delicate flower,
my petals fragile to the harsh reality of society.
That I was something special to be cared for,
to be cultivated, but I didn’t realize
that being tended to was him caressing
my breasts in the most gentle way,
staining my body with his handprints.

He told me that I was his special flower,
that no one else would take care of me
the way that he would; that no one else
would love me as much as he would.
He fertilized my soil with lies, forced
me to be dependent on falsehoods as his
manipulations took root in my heart as truth.

He told me that I had blossomed well
despite the many distasteful weeds that
surrounded me on a daily basis, but
he was unaware that the way he tended me
left me mangled in the most ugly way,
unable to be fixed except with a gentle hand
that would only be repulsed by my heart of thorns.


Author Bio:
Rachel Oshiro is currently at student at Binghamton University majoring in English and Medieval Studies. She started writing poetry from a young age as a way for her voice to be heard in an environment where she felt she ignored. Now poetry is a way for her to share her story and her feelings in hopes to inspire other people to write about their life experiences when they might otherwise feel silent.