Myosotis Scorpioides

Maya Shrivastav // sophomore sestina

Your eyes, like flowers, were blue

I stared at the veins of your leaves

And you kept me so safe in your memory

I thought, ‘Would you remember me, If I ran off, flew free with new wings Or would I just be another wilted petal?’

I stood by you, though I was a mere petal

A beautiful forget-me-not, soft blue

I tried to set myself free, grow wings

I envied you, my dearest, untethered leaf

As you floated down to Earth, leaving me

To hold you nowhere but in my own memory

You know, all we ever have is memory

Dreams of letting go, floating down like a petal

Freed, on Earth, at home, just you and me

Together, we’d look at the skies, so blue

As we left our chains and lay there in the leaves

Why couldn’t we be given wings? You say goodbye, and all I have left is memory

I always wanted to float on the wind like a leaf

Instead of being locked in like what I am, delicate little petal On a flower so perfectly illusionary, chained in bright blue But nobody ever promised that life to me.

I watched you soar and cried, don’t forget me

I saw you bleed to find your wings

The skies were endlessly, perfectly blue

But only now in our memories

I was always just a falling, wilted petal And you, falling as well, a drying leaf

You were freer before us, a wind-blown leaf And yet, I want you to fly with me

Falling to the ground, gently floating petals

I was afraid they were only ephemeral wings

That all I’d have afterward were the memories

Above us, birds would soar on their promised wings.

But now I know the sky always goes back to blue.

You weren’t ever just a leaf, but a bird, with wings

And me? I was more than simply a fragment of memory

Forget me not, my love, for I was not a petal but a blossom, sky blue.