Marissa Castrigno

Eden

Two flowers rise;
the first is tall and gentle.
Her petals curl back and there in her
center, a deep dark stain.

The second is open-faced and beautiful,
guarded by eruptive blossoms
and leaves on thin-lipped branches.
She has no middle.

In a dream, I am the one watered.
I stand in the garden, reaching with red-tipped fingers
as the flowers bow over me.
Am I very small?





Marissa Castrigno is a writer working in science journalism and public affairs in New York City. She is the author of an essay collection And Then Who Knows? and her work has appeared in the Huffington Post, xoJane and Bluestockings Magazine. She holds a B.A. in English from Wesleyan University and lives in Brooklyn, NY.