Bougainvillea

Natalie DC
1 minute read
bougainvillea becomes me with its shiny leaves and flamingo-tinted petals. i feel them reaching through the cuts upon my knees; their thorny bits sprout from my scalp jut from my gums, pierce my skin, and i think, what did i ever do to deserve this? but it’s the vine with its pretty outside and prickly insides that deserves me, it would seem as i tilt my neck back and let the branches outstretch my hand — fingernails bitten down to the quick — reaching for a future that only leaves me sick.
Natalie DC is a 19 year old poet and artist from Penn-sylvania who fears bees but would willingly dive to the depths of the internet.