Belinda

identity: female she/her

roles: gardener

traits: quiet, careful, strange

ex-mate: Acanthus

daughters: Leilani and Lilo

origin: auction house

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we need to find god, a wise woman once said,
and he cannot be found in noise and restlessness.
god is the friend of silence. see how nature — trees,
flowers, grass — grows in silence; see the stars, the
moon and the sun, how they move in silence. we
need silence to be able to touch souls.
seeing her, there- one cannot help but wonder-
if all could hold themselves so still, listening to the words that
the universe whispers to the void in passing, would there be
a little more love, a little more light, for us all to share?
make every motion purposeful, every breath for a reason, and
you cannot live without fulfillment-
when your body strives to please you and the world that gives
you life, what more could you possibly want?
if we were all so quiet, could we reach the galaxies?
if we all listened half so hard, could we too fall in love?

she finds god in the flowerbeds- his ear pressed upward between
the roots, covered in dirt, his grainy hands scrabbling softly at
the weeds as she tugs them from the other side.
his lips dusted with morning frost that kills the bulbs-
his hair lined with clogging moss.
she does not share him- he does not want to be shared.
he does not want anything- he doesn't know what want is.
she found god in the rose blossoms and his thorns caught her and
now she is so quiet, so soft-
she cannot leave him to grow, and choke, and whimper, alone.
they don't understand her obsession- the flowers are fine, they tell her,
leave them be- you'll choke them with love, you'll smother them in
kindness.
but only she knows they can never be drowned in affection-
god cries underground every day and they're all still alive:
endlessly tick, tick, ticking their life away.
her heart ticks there, too.

...

-by SkyTreader197