Seeds

We girls begin not like flowers, but like seeds falling from the bellies of trees; we lay dormant under the carpets of leaves, minding our own business until the age of thirteen, and then the fire ignites. It unlocks us from our hard cocoons we inherit from our mothers and we begin to grow, slowly with young green flesh so fragile and so determined to reach the sun. It is so bright we cannot see those who love us, we cannot see those who have come to cut us down. 

 First four photographs are by Nirrimi Firebrace, last photograph by Matt Caplin. Words by me