PHOTO PROMPT – © Rochelle Wisoff-Fields
All season they march out, culinary soldiers, to our raised bed, pillaging our peppery leaves and primary-colored blossoms. Armed with birchwood baskets, their hands reach with harvesting intent, plucking at-will, collecting our dismembered corpses with bright smiles. Some even whistle as they work. Then back they trudge to dissect and torture their plunder.
When sun reaches zenith, their generals come, line along the windows, make us watch as they grind our friends between their molars, washing them down with the crushed corpses of our neighbors who’ve been culled from the vines.
Ghosts of the fallen line the tables, never released.
[100 words]
Rochelle Wisoff-Fields is the smiling host of Friday Fictioneers.
Tao Talk 
I love the POV on this one. A very rare perspective, well done.
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Many thanks, Bear 🙂
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I’m attempting to write something from the perspective of something invisible for Nano this year.
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Sounds intriguing, Bear. To be and not to be…
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Someone’s culinary outing is another’s barbaric custom! Oh dear.
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And this was the vegans… I can just imagine the pain of the cows when they see what we do.
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Exactly, Bjorn.
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Dear Lisa,
No doubt the fallen were delicious. 😉 Different POV. Well seasoned story.
Shalom,
Rochelle
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Rochelle, thank you.
Shalom,
Lisa
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But at least the humans take care of plant reproduction
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Michael Pollan’s Botany of Desire suggests the prettiest plants have the best chances of survival as they seduce humans into cultivating them.
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Plants have feelings too! Unique POV, nice one.
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In this story, yes 🙂 Thank you, Iain.
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Sugar canes must tremble at the coming of the reapers. I really enjoyed the angle you took.
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Many thanks, Mike. Glad you enjoyed the story 🙂
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You’ve made this exercise sound so dramatic and barbarian.
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Does it upset you?
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If I focus on the visuals, I wouldn’t be able to eat the vegetables at all. Luckily, I will just admire your flair to see the unusual and move on. 👍👍👍
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🙂 Just checkin!
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😂🤣
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Well dang, Lisa! I just ate a bowl of cereal and now I feel a bit bad for it. 🙂 Great story, it’s all about perspective.
By the way, love the Bernie Sanders platform image on your side bar. If only, right? I still have my Bernie sticker on my laptop and I get thumbs up from people sometimes when I’m in the coffee shop.
Have a good week.
David
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Ha ha Wheaties and the silent scream, eh? Thanks for your funny comment. Thanks on Bernie, his platform is a good one and let’s hope Biden and Kamala do their best to move every bit of it towards reality for everyone.
You too (have a good week)
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Wooo…that was brutal…poor plant…or whatever it was…the key word is was…
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🙂
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I recently read that plants can express emotions, of such. As a vegetarian, my next thought was…what to eat? I loved your story!
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Yes, it is an ongoing dilemma isn’t it. Thank you, Sascha.
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I’ve always thought plants were as sentient as animals. There are certainly healthful and political reasons to prefer a vegetable diet, but to say animals feel pain and plants do not makes no sense. (K)
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They communicate, we know that much, which means there are receptive pathways. “Pain” may come in a form other than ours but I have to agree with you.
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I suddenly feel guilty for that sip of wine I just took – crushed corpses! Sorry.
Here’s mine!
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LOL Did you hear them screaming as you swallowed?
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There are those who believe plants do communicate, you have just proved them correct.
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It’s been proven that trees do, which means “lesser” plants probably do as well…
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I love your imagination on this one. Things from a very different perspective 🙂
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Isn’t it funny how the mind works? It started by my seeing that one orange blossom, then my eyes went to the flowers on the tablecloth, and an idea was born 🙂
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Harvesting my veggies will never feel the same again! 🙂
Susan A Eames at
Travel, Fiction and Photos
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🙂
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I’ll never use condiments or herbs again!
Yes I will 🙂
Fun POV!
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Fun comment thanks, Ali 🙂
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shockingly telling it like it is. it must be tough not to be at the top of the food chain.
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Plaridel, I think you’re right. Thanks for reading and your comment.
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Ha ha! Poor plants… kinda hard to feel for them, though..
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If a person wants to stay alive, something else has to die. Not a system I’d want to claim as my crowning achievement, but it is what it is. Thanks for reading and commenting, Dale.
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After I read “The Secret Life of Trees” I can’t garden without trying to spare my plants from prolonged agony; as my omnivore daughter says “at least I know it’s dead when I eat a steak” food for thought.
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Excellent observation by your daughter!
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Such lyrical, descriptive writing! What an interesting POV. Even if we adhere to the philosophy of “live and let live”, we can’t survive if we let ALL live.
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Well-said, Magarisa!
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🧡🤍
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🙂
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Jesus! I remember hearing as a kid that plants scream but at a pitch we can’t hear. I always thought it was nonsense. I don’t remember this, but my mom says she took me to a butcher when I was three to see the animal corpses, so I would know what I was eating. I was like, “All right. Can we go get a burger?” We have two options, eat or don’t. I do strongly believe the way the animals are treated before slaughter is horrific, Dexter was more humane, and the additives are tantamount to poison. Again, we have a lack of options.
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You’re right. We didn’t design the system. Something must die in order to live. I’d like to get to a place where only plants die so I can live but haven’t gotten there yet.
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I wouldn’t make a good vegetarian. I get it. I just couldn’t do it. My friend’s step-nephew is the son of a butcher who is dating a vegan. He cheats on her with bacon. That sounds like a joke, but it’s true.
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Beef is 99.9% off of the table for me and 100% of pork. Oh, I know that’s no joke about the bacon! How in the world did a butcher’s son and a vegan get together? Maybe they each dream of being tantalized by the other’s dietary choices?
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Isn’t pork healthier than beef? I thought white meat was favored in the white vs. red meat debate. For me it’s all about taste. I just love a good burger. I will often opt for chicken instead because it’s healthier. Pork just doesn’t have the same appeal for me.
I don’t know how they got together, but that’s not an isolated incident. My dad used to work with a guy who previously worked as a butcher, met a girl went vegan. I’ll go the polite route and say, “Love conquers all.”
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Pigs are too intelligent to eat and the idea of them suffering in barred holders where they can’t move around is intolerable. Same as the other critters, but worse.
I still haven’t figured out the chemistry vs. love thing and probably never will. I do know it has little to do with logic.
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“…too intelligent to eat…” You can always eat humans.
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aka long pig, you’re right.
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Ouch! I’ll not view pepper the same way again. Great story POV
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🙂 Thank you.
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