An Impatient King (prosery/flash fiction)

by Stephen J Frankenberry

A new “prosery” prompt at dVerse Poets from Sanaa, a 144 word piece of prose to include a chosen line from a poem, in this case, the line “The future gathers in vine, bush, and tree: Persimmon, walnut, loquat, fig, and grape” from the poem “Time and the Garden” by Yvor Winters.

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An Impatient King

An impatient King, always. Taxes before fields were plowed netting his peasants their meager fealty, wives before they had chance to know him as husband (though that impatience was prudent lest they all be found having leapt from towers before losing their heads) meats before they’d grown full for the butcher, fruits and vegetables ahead of ripening, even some children conscripted to his army before they were strong enough to fight, paying the price then as mere fodder.

The Gardener knew this, lamenting his own children’s losses, stripped too early from nature’s nurture “The future gathers in vine, bush, and tree: Persimmon, walnut, loquat, fig, and grape need their time” he thought “hemlock though?” he thought more “can be quite effective if harvested early.”  

You see, the Gardener was also impatient … for poetic irony, for poetic justice and for a garden’s proper time.

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