Iam a white orchid in your orchard,
The rare bloom that trembles only for your winds.
Can you recognize me?!
Or must I wither once more
before your eyes finally learn my name?
I have waited through seasons of forgetting,
Through suns that burned too close
and moons that pulled me open like tides
teaching my petals the ache of longing.
I grew in the hidden corners
where shadows claim the abandoned,
Yet still I turned toward the faintest glow of you
my quiet, distant gardener of fate.
Do you see me now,
The way my fragrance rises like a prayer
from the depths of old heartbreaks?
Do you feel how my softness holds a history
of storms, uprootings,
and the loneliness of blooming
where no footsteps ever pause?
I am a white orchid
but my soul is not white
it is inked with past lives,
With the memory of abandoned lovers
Who recognized me too late and whom I had
to leave behind….
Still I stand here,
Pure in my defiance,
Tender in my survival.
Come closer….
Trace the trembling of my petals,
The shiver of my stem….
That knows your touch from centuries ago.
For I am the flower that never dies;
I keep finding you across lifetimes,
Across gardens,
Across the unloved spaces of fate!
Can you recognize me now?
Or must I bloom again and again
in the ache of eternity
until your soul finally whispers
“Yes, this is mine.”
©® Farheen Akter Bhuian Nancy
Time Frame: 12.04 pm, IUB Auditorium.