I delight in my strolls through the cemetery. Deep twilights suffused with rising mists. Dense plantings of sweet-scented, thorny old fashioned roses. Crunch of footsteps on gravel paths meandering under mature maples blazing blood red in the fall. Ornate wrought iron fences delineating family plots, marble columned, ivy-clung mausoleums, sky-stabbing monoliths, battered and weathered tilting grave markers. All life histories etched on stone. The silence, thick, drowning out the noises of modern life. I am rarely bothered here by ghosts of the present. I much prefer the spirits of the passed.
Composed for the Saturday Mix – Bastet: gothic horror flash fiction
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March 24, 2017 at 10:32 am
Splendid Lorraine … there is something Dickensian in the way you’ve described the cemetery, makes me wish I were back in the English cultural world – in Italy cemeteries are more like tiny walled cities, rarely with trees, except as boundary markers. There’s nothing spooky about an Italian cemetery – but they can give you a feeling of desolation. Here’s a glimpse of an Italian cemetery in Umbria during All Souls Day (Nov. 2) when people all go to the cemetery to put flowers on their families graves.
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March 18, 2017 at 8:59 am
Plotting or plodding along. Sometimes the present or future can be a scary place!
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March 12, 2017 at 11:44 am
Beautiful…
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March 12, 2017 at 12:33 pm
Thanks! Not quite gothic, but . . .
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March 12, 2017 at 9:56 am
Lovely and comforting … which may seem crazy, but there can be a familiar zone that is easy and quiet, even in “gothic horror” …. like the way you went with this prompt :)
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March 12, 2017 at 10:47 am
I do like cemeteries, I must admit. I lament the wearing away of history on the gravestones.
When we traveled, my father took back roads, and we stopped at examined graveyards along the way. If there was a cemetery handy when I taught history, we’d have a class trip there to gather information like detectives from what was written, ages, clusters of burials.
I spent a lot of time talking to my dad when I still was geographically close enough to visit his grave.
So, I would find cemeteries gothically creepy at times, there are some I feel quite at home in.
Thought your idea was brilliant and the responses have been up to the challenge!
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March 12, 2017 at 10:48 am
Meant to say Bastet’s idea. I was thinking of commenting to her about the prompt. Silly me.
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March 12, 2017 at 10:54 am
s’okay …. had me scratching my head for a minute, but realized ;)
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March 12, 2017 at 10:55 am
Cemeteries and graveyards are interesting places …. in many ways, although I admit, sometimes it’s best to leave those gone alone …. depends on the place and circumstances …
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March 12, 2017 at 11:25 am
Definitely depends on place and circumstance — there are some creepy graveyards, too.
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March 12, 2017 at 5:31 am
Excellent response Lorraine, great description in your 100 words..
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March 12, 2017 at 10:43 am
Thanks Michael — enjoyed your gothic tale — spine tingling to be sure.
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March 12, 2017 at 5:06 pm
Thank you Lorraine..
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