Stained Petals/Dear Darling


I.

To be seven years old and unafraid
I was crying to stop it all.

The sensation
The falling
The cold, round, blue-black space
And the turning world.

I was born to eat flowers.

I said to myself,
Some flowers bloom and die in your mouth.

I did not like it.
I don't want to talk.
To become a bad thing,
A paroxysm of rage.

Murder wet against my bosom
Coming, Coming, Coming.
II.

You were too young when they put dirt in your virgin body and unfortunately no one ever told you to stop eating worms.

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Yeama H. Bangura is a writer and cultural essayist interested in the strange relationship between the self and the world around it. Her work draws from philosophy and personal experience to question the ways language, relationships, technology, and social structures shape the realities we inhabit. Her writing has been published in perediza.