The cost of life
by Eryn Lee, Tintern Grammar
Years 9 – 10 Ekphrastic Poetry Finalist
‘Crow Eating a Persimmon’ by Ohara Koson (c.1910)
The persimmon does not know,
That its sweetness is its hamartia.
It simply ripens,
Because that’s what persimmons do.
The crow only takes what it needs.
And somehow, that makes it worse.
You may grow high,
But hunger has wings.
You ripened into something beautiful,
But the crows noticed.
Don’t blame the crows.
They were hungry.
Don’t blame the fruit.
It was too sweet.
Some things are simply made,
To be destroyed by the things that want them.