Category: Photography

Broken Fence

The Fredericks bought Adkins Estate with farmhouse, barn and sheds. The farm maintained itself from land rentals to local farmers. There was also a notorious fence separating it from ancient Indian burial grounds.

That’s why they bought it. They planned to rent rooms to people wanting to spend the night in a haunted house.

They repaired the buildings but broke the fence to make it look spookier. They called their website “Visit Fredericks’ Freaky Ghost House”.

Many rented rooms and left five-star reviews until it became known that after changes to the fence, the ghosts no longer felt welcome.

Linked to Charli Mills’ Carrot Ranch flash fiction challenge with the prompt “broken fence”. Stories are required to be exactly 99 words excluding title. I searched, but I could not find Frederick’s Ghost House. Just in case there is such a place, this is a work of fiction.

Photos: “Deep Green Looking Up”, above, and “Where There’s Sun There’s a Shadow”, below. These don’t look spooky to me, but perhaps I am not looking close enough.

Where There's Sun There's a Shadow

The Need for Speed

With maddening speed the little weed
Grows through the vacant lot.
When fertilized bare spots concede
They’ve lost to what green’s got.

Photos: “Speeding Past the Green Below”, above, and “This Guy’s in No Hurry”, below, linked to K’lee and Dale’s Cosmic Photo Challenge with the theme “the need for speed”.

This Guy's in No Hurry

Buttons

Ryan held the hand-carved applewood buttons. They each had four tiny holes like real buttons.

“Your Uncle Thomas made them for me.” Ryan returned the buttons to his great aunt. He couldn’t see why anyone would have made them.

“He made my wedding dress as well.” Ryan thought that was as odd as those buttons.

“We bought a cake and two rings. I had flowers for my hair.” He heard the story before.

“I forgave him.” Ryan listened. He hadn’t heard that part.

“For dying so young.” He had heard that part.

“I feel him visit me every day.”

Text: Linked to Debbie Roth’s Forgiving Fridays on themes of forgiveness and Charli Mills’ Carrot Ranch Flash Fiction Challenge with the current challenge to write a 99-word story prompted by the word “buttons”.

Photos: “Two Golden Rings”, above, and “Sunset”, below.

Sunset

Opposites

Sorrow from the clearing goes.
Joy there lost today.
Rejection grips as sadness grows.
The woods of darkness stay.

I’ll follow sorrow, if I may.
It wanders mindfully.
“Don’t waste your time,” the wise may say,
“Those woods are dark. You’ll lose your way.”
Forgiveness strengthens me.

Text: Linked to dVerse Poetics. Lillian is hosting with the theme of opposites. Also linked to Debbie Roth’s Forgiving Fridays.

Photos: “Light Green Dark Green”, above, and “Upside Down Reflection of Right Side Up”, below.

Upside Down Reflection of Right Side Up Reality

Long Ago

My first job was in data processing. The night shift gave me the day to enjoy the city. I mounted magnetic tape onto drives as tall I was. It was a job that begged to be automated. That was long ago. Like Sisyphus, I can still see myself mounting those tapes only to take them down again.

My walk to work led past the Art Institute. I spent an hour each afternoon wandering through the exhibits. I can still see some of them.

One of the benefits of membership, at least in those days, long ago, in what I would even call the mysterious dark ages of my life, was the free coffee that the Institute offered in the afternoon. I became a regular around four in the afternoon with a dozen retirees who were always there and a few strangers who might wander in some afternoon and whom we would never see again. I can still taste that coffee.

Through daydreams blow the breeze of memory.
When shadows break I look and sometimes see.

Text: Linked to dVerse Haibun Monday.  Jilly is hosted with the challenge to the traditional form.

Photos: “Blue and Green”, above, and “Red and Green”, below.

Red and Green