Loveday Writing

The brief of the AWC Furious Fiction – December 2021 short story competition was as follows:

• Your story must include a tree.
• Your story must include something being taped.
• Your story must include the words DANCE, SEARCH, and CHANGE.

***

Although this is a poem it is a fictional story being told via a poem.

The Tree

When I was wood,

I stood proud and tall.

People would search for me

to sit under me when it was warm,

and watch my leaves fall and change,

when it grew cold.

I stood proud and tall

even when people would tape flyers to my trunk,

to sell their stuff or their services,

or to find lost loved ones.

I never liked the feeling

of my murdered friends on my skin.

I stood proud and tall

even when my friends around me burned

during the summers with bushfires

and the people would fight about why…

arson or climate change?

Every year they’d do this dance

as I waited for new friends to grow.

When I was wood,

I stood proud and tall

even when the axe started to fall…