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Madilyn Sturges grew up in a family that built her an art corner in the living room and still prints her artwork and puts them on the fridge. While her major is more focused on social justice, she still finds ways to combine social justice and art to help make social movements and ideas more accessible.

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There is an idea that each person is either a flower or a gardener. As a flower, you love receiving love and attention while the gardener prefers to give attention. Flowers preen under attention, while gardeners are more awkward under excessive amounts of attention. In this poem, the narrator is the gardener who is showing love to the flower-person to encourage literal and hypothetical growth.

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The Flower and the Gardeners

You are but a seed,

Filled with unknown potential 

Waiting to bloom.

I water you and

Face you towards the 

Warm sun in hopes you’ll

Breathe it in and sprout.

You are but a bud

Showing yourself to some

But hiding from others

You feel scared but do not worry,

I will watch over you with

Lovely eyes and cold water from

The faucet.

Your time is coming.

You are a flower

You feel the rays of sun tickle your petals

Giving you goosebumps in the wind

You smile at everything.

Oh, are you happy you are alive.