The Ladies of Horror
Picture-Prompt Writing Challenge!

A Time for Planting 
by Marge Simon 

She planted a garden that spring, and by fall had canned the resulting peas, squash and tomatoes. During the long winter, she dreamed of sharing her harvest with the handsome sailor who had promised to return.

She lit tapers of perfumed candles, crocheted a blanket to warm his legs, prepared her body with sweet lotions so that he might find her fairer still when he came back from the sea. Yet no letters arrived, his kisses remained a wistful dream, as were his arms, his hands so large around her own, so comforting.

Then one fine morning in early spring when the dew was sparkling on new blooms, and with all tasks ahead to start afresh, she took her shovel to the garden. Very soon, as it was not deep beneath, she found that hand that once had held her own.

A certain flavor in his parting kiss, a sign he never would return–could she have caught him unawares with the very tool that she now grasped? Surely that could not be so!

Knocking the bones aside, she sighed, wiped her nose and began to spade.

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Fiction © Copyright Marge Simon
Image courtesy of Pixabay.com 

More from Marge Simon:

Cast from Darkness
by Marge Simon and‎ Mary Turzillo

Cast from Darkness is another triumphant collaboration between award-winning Speculative poets, Marge Simon and Mary Turzillo.

The poetry includes themes running the spectrum of the speculative genres and forms ranging from the haiku through many nuances of vere libre to the prose poem.

Available on Amazon!