The Fireweed
Burned trees and scorched earth tell the story of what happened here.
I can barely recall details of people, names, and places once so intimately familiar, nor the life that was, for a time, lush and green as the woods. A flash – a single moment – and everything changed. This once-thriving forest is now unrecognizable.
Fire consumes all.
I can see smoke rise from the embers of the life I once lived.
And where there is smoke, there will be fireweed thriving in places touched by flame.
I used to be someone else. Now I am the fireweed.
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Written in response to the February 8, 2018, flash fiction challenge at Carrot Ranch Communications.
In 99 words (no more, no less) write a story that includes fireweed. You can use it as the plant, a flower, a metaphor or as the name of someone or something. Go where the prompt leads. Burn bright when you write.
Also joining the crew over at Ivy Walker‘s blog for Six Sentence Stories. Each week writers are challenged to spin a tale in just six sentences.* This week’s cue is SMOKE. Click on the link right here to read some great stories and link up to share your own!
*I do realize I have eight sentences, not six. I’m over it.
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Well done!
Thank you!
Love the infusion of strength through transition in your flash, Lisa. I especially like all three of your last sentences!
Thank you, Charli! <3 I wrote the last few sentences first - the rest came from there.
Very good. I get it, it also made me think of people who torch their lives on so many ways
Hmm, yes. That does happen.
well done, (to me that means not simply the effective description, putting us there, but in that subtle hook at the end that brought it all home to the Reader.
cool
Thank you, sir. A wonderful bit of feedback to close out my day. 🙂
This is a beautiful SSS, thoughtful, even poetic.
Fireweed is so pretty and there is plenty of it growing in our state.
Thank you, Pat.
It really is stunning to see.
Nice flash!
Thank you, Patricia!
So poetic! Really works with the photo, too. Lovely ending.
Aww, thank you, Tui! I just love that photo – really grabbed me.
This is a very poetic piece Lisa. Very cool that you wrote the last lines first. It reminded me of Pat’s comment at Girlie – she read my 6 backwards. Reading yours backwards makes perfect sense!
Thank you! I always take what comes to me first and work from there.
I just saw Pat’s comment on yours – definitely cool! Very interesting spin that way.
Beautifully written Lisa.
Thanks, Keith! Loved your piece this week, too.
Haunting and sad story, but the fireweed is the hope that comes after. Your words are lyrical and poetic. I like that you could multi-task blog hops.
Thank you, Val. I love that something so beautiful can come from such destruction. Hope is tenacious.
The multi-task was pure coincidence, but a good one! Smoke…fireweed…just kinda had to go with it. 😀
Fireweed is the phoenix, paving the way for the rebuilding to come. There is always hope. <3
Yes! I do like to believe that there is always hope, that new life will always come.
Quite a sad take on fireweed, but that is just reality. Sometimes fire and nature are not what they seem to be, and so much more powerful than we’ve ever thought. I felt that it’s a write up that reminds us to be humble…that you never know when you will be torched and need some luck on your side. Great writing 🙂
So true, Mabel. We never know what will come our way in life. Fire and nature are so very powerful, but in many ways are both predictable. While we can’t know or control how fire will burn or how nature will grow, we do know that both have certain observable behaviors that are consistent. Cycles are always present. And we can always know that from those sad realities, something new will come. Thanks for reading!
Well told. Fire can be so useful and so dangerous.
It is a double-edged sword, for sure.
Wow! Just, wow! Wow.
I love you! Thank you. <3
Lovely! Rise again, fireweed!
Thanks, Chelsea!