Once again, Madison Woods has posted a beautiful photograph as a prompt for Flash Fiction Friday. I feel a little strange writing a dark, sad flash fiction for such a warm and bright photo. But I am in that kind of place with my work-in-progress, Broken Dreams.
I often feel sad for those times in our history and even today, when people are judged, bullied, even killed because of skin color, religious belief, sexual orientation. When we will know their hearts?
That Time of Day
Sunset used to be my favorite time of day, when I waited for my boy to run to me, to sit in my branches and listen to me whisper as we watched the sun go down together.
Now, I dread sundown, when I hear voices gathered beneath my branches, ugly words spewing from their mouths. A man cries as a noose is wrapped around his neck. I rattle my leaves in protest. But they do not hear my whispers.
I will shed my leaves like tears. I do not want to be the hanging tree.
Jan Morrill Writes 
Oh Jan, you're right that is so sad. Very dark things we have done in the name of fear – of differences, whether religion, ethnicity, or whatever else marks a person 'different'.
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I love that this is from the perspective of the tree. Interesting twist. 🙂
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Beautiful.
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Wow, was that powerful – and extremely moving!
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Thanks, everyone. I like to write from strange points of view. 🙂
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Wow, powerful and painful. Well done.
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Love the idea of telling from the tree's POV. I feel the tree's pain.
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I don't think we'll ever know everyone's hearts. Perhaps that's what the singularity's great boon would be, to rob individuality in favor of uniform knowledge. Until then, though, there'll always be "others". We have to be mindful of how we think of them.
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@Siobhan Muir, thanks. It is painful, especially knowing our past.@Sonia Lal, if inanimate objects could talk, imagine what we might learn.@John Wiswell, I agree that we can never know everyone's heart. But I firmly believe that we need to learn to look at each person as an individual rather than judging them by their "labels."Thanks for your comments!
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Jan, that is great! It's nice to think a tree would gets it and feel it. Who knows, maybe they do.I continue to hope, as a human race, we can learn to appreciate our differences and view them as strengths in our fellow man, instead of weaknesses.Our past is sad, but so is the present, and will be the future, until all men and women learn not to judge others solely by appearances alone, or by what others believe when it differs from our beliefs.
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