The Thinking Sapling

Lily was preparing for school.
Picking her clothes, pencils, and tools.
She finished breakfast and cleaned the plates.
Excited, she rushed out the door in haste.

Mother brought out her pink sweater.
”You look cute this way,” she answered.
Lily refuses at first, but Mother insists.
”Who in their right mind refuses this?”

A hug before they head out at dawn.
The sun rose behind the pair.
Mother picked flowers from the lawn-
then set them upon her hair.

But today, the weather was warm.
In a dizzy heat, Lily’s mind remained torn.
Mother said she was cute in this sweater.
So she’d wear it for hugs and flowers.

Soon she meets her friends at school.
”Pink is childish, we wear blue!”
They laughed and teased as Lily stood-
in their midst, looking at her shoes.

Day after day, she went to class.
Day after day, they still laughed.
Her friends would poke and tease.
”She’s still in pink,” they decreed.

One day, she went back home to her drawer-
and she picked blue of all colours.
The next day, she went out the door,
ready to leave for school once more.

Frowning, Mother asked for pink.
Lily refused “What would my friends think?”
Over the flower, mother’s hands stayed.
In silence, they walked down the lane.

Her friends, surprised, had then cheered.
”It’s blue now!” they’d say
and they lessened their jeers.
Yet, little had changed that day and year.

Still today, the weather was warm.
In a dizzy heat, Lily’s mind remained torn.
Her friends said she wasn’t a child.
So she still wore it for praise and pride.

Day after day, she left home.
Day after day, Mother asked for pink.
The flowers are now overgrown.
As Lily rushes to her clique.

Amidst her friends, she stood but swayed.
The sun shined its glowing rays.
She tugged and pulled the troubling sweater.
Her head lightened under such weather.

Alone at last, on a break in the garden.
She took the sweater off in relief and sighed.
The woolly burden there laid forgotten.
The cool wind blew as the minutes passed by.

The bell rang, and she grabbed the blue sweater.
She put it on and then went to class.
Her friends complained about the weather.
With a foggy mind, she numbly laughed.