By Fredrik Siwmark Carlsson
The kitchen vase clings to the withering peace lilies drooping over its edge. Yellow petals, once tranquil white, fall off the stems, one by one. Only a few remain.
Every room is the same. Brittle begonias, crumbling crocuses, and melting snowdrops are turning my lively apartment into a place for the dead—a cemetery for forsaken plants.
I don’t know what to do. It was always you who watered them and made them feel loved. Now that you’re gone, they wilt under the scorching sun.
In the hallway mirror, the reflection is alien, my eyes yellowed.
It appears I’m wilting, too.
Beautifully done. I got a chill. Great line. “I don’t know what to do.”
awww so sad – great visuals
Captured so beautifully, touching most of our fears around being left.
Conveys so beautifully a sadness around loss and being ‘left to wilt’.
This is beautifully poignant and touching, portraying the sometimes tragic reality of the end of life after your soulmate has passed on.
Nicely done! Fact check: Peace lilies only have 1 petal per stem (one white leaf), so I’d change it to the petals fall off their stems (plural) or the petal (singular) falls off the stem. Great piece!
Poignant.
Awesomely vivid visuals!
Beautiful and heartwarming metaphor for death.
Beautifully poignant
Vivid descriptions. Love the comparison of the narrator to the loss of the petals, in order to convey grief.