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Prosery Monday at dVerse where Dora is our hostess.
write a piece of prose fiction (144-words or less) using a given line of poetry!
The Poem “Sympathy”
By Paul Laurence Dunbar.

The line is :

And the faint perfume from its chalice steals—

The Greenhouse

She keeps the greenhouse locked now, though no one has tried to enter for years. The glass fogs in the mornings, turning the flowers into blurred ghosts until the sun rises high enough to reveal them again. Every plant inside came from somewhere else—cuttings from her mother’s garden, seeds sent by strangers, one stubborn white bloom that survived when everything around it failed.

Sometimes she sits there in silence, hands folded in her lap, listening to bees drift lazily between the stems.

Then suddenly, memory opens.

And the faint perfume from its chalice steals—Not sharp. Not cruel.

The scent always reaches her before the grief does. Just enough to remind her that love, once rooted deeply enough, never completely dies.


With love

— Maggie The Afterlove Voice 💫


If you want a reading, send me an email:

Afterlove-Voice@hotmail.com



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21 responses to “The Greenhouse”

  1. Gillena Cox Avatar
    Gillena Cox

    Nice one, Maggie

    much love

    Liked by 1 person

    1. Maggie Avatar

      Thank you so much Gillena 💜

      Like

  2. Dora Avatar

    Such a poignant vignette of grief and memory! You set the scene up so beautifully, Maggie, and used the Dunbar line perfectly in concert with the setting. 💜

    Liked by 1 person

    1. Maggie Avatar

      Thank you so much Dora 💜.
      It wasn’t the easiest line to get into this pice , many rewrites in my note book 🫣.
      Happy you liked it.

      Liked by 1 person

      1. Dora Avatar

        I’m glad you didn’t give up! Good job. 🙌🙌

        Liked by 1 person

      2. Maggie Avatar

        Thank you Dora 💜.

        We need some challenges, right ?

        Liked by 1 person

      3. Dora Avatar

        🙂👍

        Liked by 1 person

  3. Sadje/ Sadie Avatar

    A very moving piece Maggie

    Liked by 1 person

    1. Maggie Avatar

      Thank you Sadje 💜

      Liked by 1 person

      1. Sadje/ Sadie Avatar

        You’re welcome 🌹

        Liked by 1 person

  4. rothpoetry Avatar

    Very nicely done!

    Like

  5. kim881 Avatar

    I agree with Dora that this is a poignant vignette of grief and memory, Maggie. I love the way you set the scene, with the glass fogging in the mornings, the flowers turning ‘into blurred ghosts until the sun rises high enough to reveal them again’.

    Liked by 1 person

    1. Maggie Avatar

      Thank you Kim 💜

      I used my grandmother as the woman.
      I remember her grief, the flowers , and the greenhouse.

      Liked by 1 person

      1. kim881 Avatar

        My pleasure, Maggie.

        Liked by 1 person

  6. Kaci Rigney Avatar

    So good. And a lovely photo; I want to sit in that chair. I understand deep grief. Well done.

    Liked by 1 person

    1. Maggie Avatar

      Thank you so much Kaci .

      Yes, the chair looks a bit like the one my grandmother had .

      Liked by 1 person

  7. Björn Rudberg (brudberg) Avatar

    I love the focus on scent… so strong it can be to invoke memories.

    Liked by 1 person

    1. Maggie Avatar

      Thank you Bjőrn.
      Scent invokes both happy and sad memories.

      Like

  8. ms pie Avatar

    sigh…. a love that grieves often overflows into the hours and ebbs at dawn…. lovely response to the 144 prose…. if i had my choice i’d live in a greenhouse… can’t help but to wonder why a locked door… the story moved me to ask….

    Liked by 1 person

    1. Maggie Avatar

      It’s so easy to lock away our grief.
      The greenhouse is her place to fall apart and just let the memories flow.

      Liked by 1 person

      1. ms pie Avatar

        Maggie, ohhh, makes so much sense… i can now understand the ‘lock’

        Liked by 1 person

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