Akanksha Mategaonkar

She put on her beautiful purple dress,
socks, gloves, shoes and set off.
Just like everyday, she took her ponies to graze
in the belly of the green sheet that spread around her house.
The green sheet that she looked at every morning,
thinking of a new dream to ponder on.
She set off, humming a song of freedom to herself.
It had lyrics that wound themselves
around her lips and tasted sweet.
They automatically plastered
a smile on her fair, pink cheeked face.
Her eyes reflected her thoughts and dreams
and what she thought she would become,
once she grew up. They reflected all those things
she was afraid to speak out loud, being pushed harder and harder, under a rock of hierarchy.
She observed the trees. The leaves. The flowers. The snow clad mountains,
and how all of them changed their colour through the day.
How they made her think about her life
as a blooming flower,strong enough
to stand on its own, but still weak to handle a storm.

She walked towards the forest,
kicking at stones and running through fields.
She left her ponies to graze, and sat on a rock to watch them.
She calmly put her chin on her palms
and her eyes sparkled of a wave of quiet.

Only when she got up to go back to her Ammi,
Who was eagerly waiting for her sunflower
to return and fly into her arms,

Hands, draped in orange,
Pulled her into darkness.