It's a Girl
by Pauline Murphy, Ireland. Third place in the Writory International Poetry Contest, July 2026, scored 95 out of 100.
It's a Girl for a girl in an orphanage YouтАЩve learned to have small needs, so you smile for the day you canтАЩt see, let dreams go, easy. Like the sun, your face shines bright in a life that is dark and lived beside cold walls, peeling green and throwing their shadows into a pale stew - a big woman feeds you - you watch her, unseeing, eyes wide and blue, turn your head and listen hard to the scrape and tap of the spoon, mouth a perfect O, then swallow, begin once more and once more begin until the spoon does not come again and you stop waiting. In the night, I canтАЩt shake the prickly coolness of trees and frogs and crickets that slip into the dark - sounding out. I sleep, dream youтАЩve picked up your bed and run away, surprised by the feel of grass, the breeze, small wonders beyond your bed, and there is someone to count your toes, fingers, smell the crown of your head.
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