The Ladies of Horror
Picture-Prompt Writing Challenge!

Goodbye, Freedom
by Melissa R. Mendelson

Even the sun does not want to shine today.

The bright, soft clouds are being eaten alive.

Darkness is taking the blue.

The trees sway, whispering, afraid to be heard,

and the wind is silent,

its chill lingering across my skin.

No birds dare fly where they could be caught.

Time is dead,

and I live endless,

watching the sky,

knowing that when night falls,

I will be denied the stars.

But I still look up

for I can’t stare down

at a body left to bone,

a mind broken by fists,

but amazingly,

I am still here,

looking for a sign,

or at least, a blue sky with bright, soft clouds.

If only a bird would pass me by,

fly high on their wings,

so I could just imagine being carried off,

away from this concrete place.

Instead, I see red

from the drone now aiming a gun

at my face.

It was time to return back inside.

Another day gone,

another moment lost.

Goodbye, Freedom.

If only we…

If only we fought for you.

 

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Fiction © Copyright Melissa R. Mendelson
Image © Copyright Rie Sheridan Rose

About Author Melissa R. Mendelson:

Melissa R. Mendelson is a horror, science-fiction and dystopian author and poet.  She has two publications with Wild Ink Publishing.  One is a prose poetry collection, This Will Remain With Us, and the other is a short story collection, Stories Written On Covid Walls.  She also self-published a sci-fi novella, Waken and a small short story collection, Name’s Keeper.

If you’d like to learn more about Melissa, you can visit her accounts here: www.MelissaMendelson.com