Sweet, Sour and Bruised
by Nur Rafidah, Minaret College
Years 7 – 8 Performance Poetry Finalist
An apple can be sweet,
But bruises when it falls,
Like quiet little feelings,
That nobody calls.
A lemon is sour,
Sharp on the tongue,
Like all of the words,
That stay when they’re done.
A strawberry’s fragile,
So easy to break,
But still, it keeps growing,
For somebody’s sake.
An orange has many layers,
You have to peel through,
And maybe I’m hiding,
More than people knew.
A peach can be soft,
Yet, bruise underneath,
Looking perfectly fine on the outside,
While hiding its’ grief.
A mango is golden,
Sweet when it’s ripe,
But sometimes the sweetest things,
Don’t make things right.
A watermelon is heavy,
With a hard outer side,
But inside is the softness,
It tries hard to hide.
A pineapple’s roughness,
Can keep people away,
But underneath all of it,
There’s sweetness that stays.
And maybe, I’m fruit too,
A little mixed up,
Sometimes sweet,
Sometimes bitter,
Sometimes I’ve had enough.
I’m bruised in some places,
But still, I can grow.
Even when life gets heavy,
I still have somewhere to go.
So let me be bitter,
Let me be sweet,
Let me have moments,
When I can feel incomplete.
Because a fruit isn’t perfect,
And neither am I.
Some things take seasons,
Before they reach the sky.
Maybe that’s growing,
Not knowing the way,
Just changing a little,
With every new day.
I am sweet, I am sour,s
I am bruised but still here.
A little more bitter,
But growing each year.
How did writing this poem make you feel?
it kinda made me feel a bit connected despite the poem not being abt me.
Which single line in your poem are you the absolute proudest of?
The line I am most proud of is ‘I am bruised but still here’. I chose this line because it captures the central message of my poem. Throughout the poem, fruit represents imperfection, difficult experiences and resilience. Even when something is bruised or damaged, it can still continue to grow, and I wanted that idea to reflect people as well.
Describe your poem in three words
Reflective, resilient, bittersweet.
Where is your absolute favourite place to sit when you are brainstorming ideas?
My favourite place to sit when I am brainstorming is somewhere quiet, usually alone in my room. Sometimes I find that the best ideas come when I am feeling a little lost or overwhelmed. I can sit there with my thoughts for a while, and somehow the things I cannot quite explain become easier to express through writing. It is often in those quieter moments that I find something worth turning into a poem.
What skills do you think you strengthened through writing this poem?
My use of personification
Why do you think people write poetry?
To express their feeling.