A Sunflower Bow – Poem by Aruna Gurumurthy

Innocence flickers, then falters, as light gives way to shadow.

A Sunflower Bow by Aruna Gurumurth follows a bright young girl through a day that begins in joy and ends in something harder to name. Read this powerful poem now on Written Tales—submissions are open if your words carry both beauty and truth.

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A little girl, a little over nine years old,
frill in her frock, frolic in her spirit,
goes out in the sun one day.
She dances, sings, twirls her hair
shining in a sunflower bow,
little does she know.

Her eyes mesmerize. She knows,
her beauty is gold, she uplifts the dismayed, the old.
She bends to tie her laces, drops her pretty bow.
Then come the clouds that mar her spirit,
scar her mind and the curly hair
rising like smoke, this hot, sunny day,

unkind. Games of fate change that day.
She wails on her way to the hospital. She knows,
she feels the sunken something under her hair,
begs for mercy, this nine-year-old
in despair. In a battle with a mysterious illness, her spirit
resists, mind rattles. She touches the remains of the oh-so beautiful bow.

The yellow in the bow
is the meaning, the metaphor on a sparkling day.
To lose it, means to plummet her spirit,
to raise it, is to shine. She knows,
one day, that shadows of evil will fade, old
scars will evade under her blonde hair.

Wellness in illness, her golden hair
paired with her dazzling mind, her bow
is the sparkle in this nine-year-old.
What is there to life, if not this moment, this day?
She has the belief, she knows
that one day waters won’t resist, mountains will be calm in spirit.

Her faith is divine, her spirit,
her mind, will cure the stigmas of humankind, the plight of her hair
without a doubt, she knows,
is not a catastrophe, it is the why, the how of the bow,
the light she awaits, this fine day,
an enigma she unravels, a young girl, all of nine-years-old.

The quintessential glow in her mind, we know, is to bring back a fallen bow,
discover the endless will of her spirit, the dazzle in her hair
on a day when her malady fades, she is back to being the frisky nine-year-old.

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✍️ About the Authors

Aruna Gurumurthy, a creative thinker and poet, has published seven poetry books since 2015, and, within her poems, captures the beauty and art in the world. She lives with her loving family in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, and brings change in the world, one poem at a time.

Initially published in Aruna Book "Puppet Dolls," self-published in 2019.

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