# Winter Flower (冬花)

By [Joseph Kim](https://paragraph.com/@josephkim) · 2021-11-23

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Under a blanket of cold white

As Death wraps her arms in warm embrace

Struggles a Flower Bud who wishes to bloom

.

_“Why do you torment yourself?” she asks_

_“Don’t you love me?”_

.

But love or affection wasn’t on his mind

He wanted to change

He wanted to know what’s beyond the comfort of his surroundings

Death cared for him so she offered to lift her blanket so that he may peek outside

But not wanting any help,

He adamantly declined and continued to struggle alone

Death couldn’t bare to see him hurt so she offered the Bud a deal:

.

_“Lend me your roots_

_So that you may leave me and venture alone,_

_I’ll give them back once you return_

_So that you may bloom in the Spring with the others”_

.

So the naive Bud accepted her offer and gave up his roots and left her

Curious baby steps turning into strides,

The tracks he left behind once close together grew further apart

He ran into the barren field hoping to find something new and alive

But all he saw was the cold white,

A lingering memory of Death’s warm embrace

.

He was lost —

Lost in his ways and in himself

.

In anguish, he screamed for help but no one was there to listen

So he wept silently

Like tears gently rolling down one’s cheek,

His petals fell off one-by-one,

Gracefully fluttering away with the Eastern wind

And in that cold as his last petal broke off,

He smelled a familiar scent as Death wrapped her arms around him

.

_“Welcome back,” she whispered_

.

Maybe he was just imagining this,

But he took his last breath to greet her with a sad smile

Before closing his eyes forever.

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*Originally published on [Joseph Kim](https://paragraph.com/@josephkim/winter-flower)*