The clouds that morning were the kind that said someone, somewhere, had been hanged in the night. The orchards were blooming and so there was the scent of apples in the air, too. Those who walked in town wanted to stay quiet and invisible. The sky was the color of the streets, and if they kept to the shadows they could almost blend in with the stone gray world above and below, or both—but I saw them walking, their heads down like in prayer to some horrible god and eyes that kept glancing around when they thought no one was looking. Walking as if the voice of the hanged man wasn’t still ringing in their ears. I saw them, and I saw the dance of shadows on their faces. The empty wrinkled lines where tears might have been if they had any left to give. Mostly their eyes that never once glanced toward the hanging tree, but still always knew exactly where it was .
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Photo by John Mark Arnold on Unsplash
The Light is On 
10 responses to “The Hanged Man”
I had to chuckle at the scent of apples in the moribund scene. The springtime is ironic taken together with the hangman theme. Life and death commingled. Kind of like the Hindu goddess Kali.
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Glad you got a laugh out of it! It just kinda seemed like the right thing to write, and you’re spot on about those conflicting (or intertwining) themes.
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Wow — loved this tone and atmosphere and hints at things to come. Any thoughts on this being the opening to a novella?
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Glad you enjoyed it! I was definitely thinking about trying to expand it. I can kind of see where the story goes from here, I’ll have to work it out a bit more though. Cheers! (:
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Really nice writing David, I really enjoyed this piece.
“Walking as if the voice of the hanged man wasn’t still ringing in their ears. I saw them, and I saw the dance of shadows on their faces. The empty wrinkled lines where tears might have been if they had any left to give”.
Soulful piece my friend. Hope you are well, happy and I am sending love to you and yours. Joni
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Thank you Joni! Hope you are doing well, too. Looks like we’re heading into a summer that will be pretty good for writing!
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It sure does. We are all doing well here, thanks for asking my friend. Have a great week. Love 💕 to you and yours. Joni
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“their heads down like in prayer to some horrible god”. Wow…. Great piece here!! Deep thought provoking words ❤️
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Thank you! I’m glad you thought so (: hope to expand it a bit more at some point.
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You’re welcome! 🙂 Well if you do I’ll be here!
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