I mostly post my poetry first on Instagram, (unless it is a patron-exclusive poem). Then, each Sunday here on the blog, I post the poem that has got the most Insta likes.

If you’re on Instagram, let’s follow each other. You’ll find my account Orna Ross.poetry here.

The poems are inspired by photographs, sometimes taken by me, sometimes by others.

My most popular poem on Instagram this week was, “Girl”.

And now for this week’s poem:

Girl

Once I was a girl
the fruit first
it seems, before
I could flower.
I did not mean
to pick her.
Blood flowed
along skin stems,
sometimes crusted.

She went,
from the alleys of being
past and to come,
under the earth
where she stayed
surfacing somewhere
in another hemisphere
in unbidden instants.

A fruit—an apple,
a cherry—
at its heart has it.
The full flavour,
the true worth.
Given as gift.

The saffron powder
of a flowering future.
The unravelment
of a deflowering.
The honey drawn.

Through the byways
of days known,
and those unread,
those held
and unremembered,
I seek now to taste her
knowing,
knowing
I was once a girl

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