The Orchard of My Bones

How the night blossoms in me

Ani Eldritch
1 min readJan 18, 2025
This artwork features a row of stylized trees in vibrant fall colors — red, orange, yellow, green, and blue. The trees are minimalist, with circular canopies and thin trunks, placed above a striped pattern of horizontal lines in matching hues. The warm, layered background is divided into bands, evoking a serene, geometric landscape under a setting sun. The style is abstract and modern.
Artwork created by the author using ChatGPT.

I woke, soft as moths
beneath the gable’s teeth,
my pulse a drumming
under rain-soaked ribs.

The mirror bites my throat,
its silver-fanged tongue
naming what I refuse
to claim. My reflection,
a blur of someone
tied to yesterday’s breath.

I wore the orchard once —
the earth plaited my hair,
and I sang where roots
were louder than wind.
Each stone was a word,
each leaf a green hymn.

Now the stars bruise
like wintered fruit. I pluck
their skins from my sky,
one by one, my hands
stung with their frost.

I have not forgotten
the flesh of the world,
how it fits like grief,
how it turns its mouth
against my shoulder,
half-kiss, half-bite.

Let me name myself again:
girl of the ash-breath moon,
keeper of lacerated clouds.
I have made a bed
of storm light and flame.

And still, beneath it all,
the orchard hums.
I am a thing growing —
split, sweet, and bitter.

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Ani Eldritch
Ani Eldritch

Written by Ani Eldritch

I’m a writer and poet from NYC.

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