The Ladies of Horror
Picture-Prompt Writing Challenge!

The Bramble’s Song of Survival  
by Alex Grehy

Trash piled on rubbish

until every cubic metre

of soil and water was

transformed.

.

We brambles made the best of things.

.

We, who understand

Autumn’s privations,

grow red, already

utilising the toxins you

left for our roots to absorb.

.

We who understand

Winter’s bite

edge our leaves

with broken glass

mined from the landfill,

pretty as hoarfrost,

sharp as razors.

.

We who understand

the seasons’ closing,

at world’s end,

gorge on what you

threw away, thoughtless.

You and yours cannot

devour us now,

toxic as we have become.

.

Starving, you scrabble for

food. Wailing that this 

future was unforeseen, as if

your complex animal bodies

had ever been able to adapt

fast enough for the noxious

world you created. You cannot

assimilate anything and everything,

as we do, to survive

.

We brambles made the best of things,

But we don’t think you can.

.

Fiction © Copyright Alex Grehy
Image courtesy of Pixabay.com

More from author Alex Grehy:

After a lifetime of writing technical non-fiction, Alex Grey is fulfilling her dream of writing poems and stories that engage the reader’s emotions. Her work has been featured by a wide range of publications including Siren’s Call, Raconteur, Bookends Review, and Toasted Cheese. One of her comic poems is also available via a worldwide network of public fiction dispensers managed by French publisher, Short Edition. Her ingredients for contentment are narrow boating, greyhounds, singing and chocolate. It is a sweet life, yet Alex’ original view of the world has led to her best friend to say ‘For someone so lovely, you’re very twisted!

Please click here to discover more!