“My Flower, My Flower” - Niko Eden

She moved her fingers

Along shadowed curvature,

Feeling the hollow strength

Of such a stem.

Her repleteness beguiled me

With strength

She was not this blossom of fragility.

She had outgrown the dainty

Nature that provided

A certain kind of suckling.

Tenuous beauty,

Curling her petals upon the touch

Was now a story

Of a different stem

A different kind of flower

She grew in soot,

Devoured in different soils.

I love the stout firmness

And

Stubborn petals.

This is my home,

my body,

my flower.

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Niko Eden expresses her love of story-telling through dance, imagery, and words. Hanging up her professional ballroom shoes she joined the U.S. Air Force, receiving an Achievement Medal for her tour in Saudi Arabia. She has been published in Bahia Bahia Magazine, Dillydoun Review, and the anthology, Proud to Be: Volume 10.