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purple ribbon

  • Writer: anna
    anna
  • Sep 8, 2023
  • 2 min read

a girl with a purple ribbon in her hair


the ribbon matches the length of the hair

like old friends matching pace.



she’s alone



surrounded by waves of long grass


trees


and mountains.


she,

moments ago was frantic


hair and ribbon too long and getting in the way


trying to do what was expected but what she couldn’t do well



but now,


as she walks



the places where there was tension


melts


melts into aligning.



(only later will she find the smelly remains of animal stuck to her shoe)




something about the dark brown of the ground



and the aliveness of the green plants


she feels shouting about them to the world



saying


‘look look


here is beauty


a dandelion and the dirt’


she could analyze like a critic would a piece of art




look at the composition,

the colors



the textures,


it could mean so much more.



she feels right,


to be walking.



they set up camp


there are more of them now,


all together


excited about the beauty of the place where they are lucky enough to have a room


the smelly remains are found and the girl with the ribbon scrapes it off.


stories are told



and then the others leave


and the girl with the ribbon smiles


because she knows she is lucky


she has time to be,

time to write down how she felt about the dandelion



as they leave they tell her that she could reach enlightenment while they are gone.


they believe she could.



but the girl with the ribbon

breaks wood,


turns on elton john

and decides if enlightenment wants her



She knows just where to find her.



(and there’s a purple ribbon, like a lighthouse, showing the way)




she gathers sticks, finding the driest ones




arms full she sees a husband and a wife


they move slowly in no rush toward and end


stopping to look at each beautiful thing



the girl with the ribbon sees them and gets scared,


not knowing what they would say about her


is she not supposed to take sticks


will they mock her?


but as she passes them by the wife, with a child wrapped onto her


says while smiling



i love your ribbon



the girl says thank you in the most earnest way she can


and as she walks away


through the tall grass

with arms full of sticks


she beams



glowing like the sticks soon will


glowing at the spark of kindness from a stranger.





——

she leaves again, to find bigger sticks



as she walks she hears the flowers call to

her



because they are kindred spirits


purples flowers smiling at a purple ribbon.



she finds the logs and like an ungrateful dancer bounces on them to break them into pieces,


her trampoline.


she pauses to smell the broken branch


and is mesmerized for a moment at the pattern inside it.



once her pile feels large enough she starts to pile the logs into her arms.


feeling the laughter of ancestors at her clumsy work


but a knowing laughter, a laughter that says i’ve been there too.



as she carries the wood she feels that her ancestors know her now,

they know what it’s like to carry wood,


carry the thing that will keep you warm when the sun trades places with the moon.



xoxo

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