2015-2016, Poem

A Garden

Featured in the 2016 Spring Issue of Rambunctious

A Garden
Amanda Henderson, '16

Here we have a Chrysanthemum.
A dark haired teen
clumsily trying to get to class on time 
and the young lady across the room
is Lavender
while her mother is a graceful White Rose.
And yet the young girl
sitting on the side of the road in the frigid evening
a cigarette lit in her dry lips
feels like a Dandelion in someone's lawn
more than anything else.
Is the girl
with the boxing gloves
and sweat dripping down the back of her neck
Stinging nettle?
Or is the 9 year old girl
with the long ponytail
leaping into the cool lake water
more like seaweed?
Is the grumpy brunette
fitting for pretty chains of daisies
that swirl around children's heads?
And don't forget
the lonely girl in the red shoes 
who wishes more than anything 
to be the grass under her own feet.