The Red Bow

Jade Duncan-Gould

She watches the raindrops as they splash around her feet. She tries to catch them in her little rosy hand, But her fingers curl around nothing. She watches the rain with a sharp and determined focus. Tears begin to pool in her eyes until they overflow, cascading down her puffy cheeks. The girl is covered in water now. Her bright yellow raincoat is the only thing that makes her stand out in the downpour. Her glossy purple boots now covered in mud, are planted in the growing puddle beneath her.

A red bow gleams in her wet brown hair, She looks at the sky above her.

And she cries,

A tiny piercing wail. Unfair. She has lost so much, So much has been taken from her, A little girl, a dot on the vast ever-widening earth. A street light shines, winking at her with mock sincerity.

And she cries,

She sobs and wails, She has lost much more than the rain has, more than the mud on her boots, more than the street light. Memories engulf her, They threaten to capture her, She remembers and she will never forget.

And she cries,

She aches inside. There is so much pain etched on her young face. She longs to be loved again, She longs to belong,

And she cries.

She knows she can never get back what she has lost. She thinks of the grave in the woods, where her mother sleeps, And thinks of the layers of earth that have closed around her. She is young and yet she must take on more than her years permit. So she cries.

All at once, she can no longer stand. Her bright red bow falls from her hair and floats in the puddle. She begins to run. All she can do is try to escape the pain in her chest. Her little legs move so fast that she stumbles, She falls to her knees and when she stands again Her yellow coat is tinged with red, But her blood is washed away in the rain and she keeps moving Until she becomes a tiny yellow dot on the horizon.

And her cries are no longer heard. The only thing remaining behind her is the red bow lying in the churning water, Slowly sinking.