As the Leaf Fell

  Once upon a time there stood a tree. 

    Where it stood is much in question. But that it stood is not in question at all. For it was from this tree that the first leaf fell.

     It fell in bitter mourning, ripped from its mother branch. Its body had changed, no longer yellow-green and fertile, with a crispness to its bearing. And so it was that with the first breath of the wind, it was plucked with ease—for it had already begun to die.

     With grave sorrow the leaf turned to the ground. 

     But the wind sighed unexpectedly.

    Up and about it twirled, higher and higher, and it could see the sun before it rose and the stars in all their massed splendor. 

     Higher still it flew until green lands faded into blue sea and all the world looked round.

    The leaf did not notice that its color had changed from green to orange to red and was now brown. Nor that its edges were brittle. For its life’s end had come about in wonder. And when the wind ceased its long exhale, and the leaf came at last to the ground, it met the dirt with kindness knowing it once had lived.

Popular posts from this blog

There Be Witches

 There was a witch. And she was young and lovely.     This was a problem, of course. Witches should not be lovely. They should be old and haggard, however benevolent their heart. There was a witch. And she was old and haggard.     This was a problem, of course. Witches would do better in the general public eye if they are young and lovely. There was a witch, and she was tired and on the bitter side of sweet.     This was a problem, of course. Witches are always better taken with when they are robustly kind. There was a witch, and she was jolly and good.     This was a problem, of course. Witches are always taken more seriously if they show how hard they've work with a piercing gaze.  There was a witch.     This was a problem, of course. There were witches. There still are.     As it happens, they eat problems for breakfast.
Read more

The Goblin's Face

 Once upon a time there was a goblin with a face that looked as though it had been bashed in with a shoe. One eye barely opened, and the other bugged out. The skin of his cheeks was mottled and had a tendency to be both flaky and greasy at the same time. His skull was higher on one side of his head than the other, and his large ears were equally lopsided. And on top of all this, he was missing a good half of his teeth, the half remaining being yellowed, rotted, and jagged.     But none of this mattered, because he was kind.     And that is the end of the lesson.
Read more

The Shadows

The light shown on Anya’s fingers. It curled around her palm and danced. This, she thought, was the sheer pleasure of having magic.       But in the midst of her play, a shadow grew.   It was not unexpected; it was the cost of doing magic, for it always begot shadows.   But it never ceased to offer discomfort.   If she could find a way to practice her craft and leave behind the adjacent darkness, she would.          Anya was not fond of the dark, or shadows, or of the sense of unease that grew whenever she let the flickering brightness dance.   But, too, there was a feeling of wholeness in her work.   How could that be, such fulfillment when darkness lay about her?   A constant wonder—the weight of it only born by extinguishing the light for a time until she could bear it again.       Today was such a time.          Anya took the light, and threw it at the darkness....
Read more