Thursday, May 7, 2009

I Had to Cut Down Our Dogwood Tree

...last year. It used to wear the most beautiful white blossoms in the spring.

I have a flash story up at The Foliate Oak entitled "Watching the White Blossoms". It isn't really a horror tale or all that speculative, but I'll call it a tribute to the dogwood. I did intend to take the plot in a much darker direction, but the story works this way.




12 comments:

Jamie Eyberg said...

Thank you for sharing. Yet another example of finding a story in the most unexpected places.

Aaron Polson said...

Jamie - you would shudder to think of the dark places that story wanted to go...

Jamie Eyberg said...

I can imagine. I have a story coming out in Bards and Sages that wanted to go the same path. What is it with lonely old men that put our imaginations in dark moods.

K.C. Shaw said...

Oh, that was sad and only slightly creepy. I liked it a lot.

I started a short (yeah, a short--go me) tentatively called Caged Trees this morning. It must be tree day or something.

Fox Lee said...

I'm sorry about the dogwood : (

Aaron Polson said...

K.C. - hooray for tree day.

Natalie - Dogwoods don't do so well here...too much wind.

Fox Lee said...

You seem to be wise in the ways of trees. Can you speculate why a Yoshino cherry, very much alive, has to show leaves and flower? It had already bloomed by this time last year, but we got it from a nursery and I know how they tend to jump start plants. Nothing online has been helpful.

Danielle Birch said...

Thanks for that, Aaron, I really liked it. I hate it when such gorgeous old trees have to be cut down.

Aaron Polson said...

Natalie - I don't know how wise I am, but trees (and other growing things) have very delicate biochemical triggers. Maybe it just hasn't been "turned on" yet. (read that as you must)

Danielle - thanks for the read...I do miss the poor thing.

Jeremy D Brooks said...

Stories will do what they'll do...I guess that's part of the fun of being a writer. I tried to write a story about a sinister, hateful deity one night, and ended up with a poem so ecclesiastical that the only place I could think of to submit it was a religious journal. That was quite a WTF moment for me. Kind of like how I set out to write scary stories but none of my stories are scary anymore...

Aaron Polson said...

Jeremy - and I set out to write normal stories and they all turn out...weird.

Katey said...

I like that, and how it's bookended with the dogwood blossoms and the image of the girl's arm. Something about that adds to the--er, wholeness, I guess, of the moment. Hm, that came out even lamer than I expected. Well, there it is.

I love dogwoods. Virginia is covered in them, and magnolias, which are my absolute favorite. They reach monster proportions from DC down!