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.