Take any street, it’s a microcosm of the entire world. You can find animals and trees, churches and sewers, saints and predators, happy and sad people, running fast, minding their own businesses, not really pausing and looking at others and their plights.
So, I know you are not looking at me, eventhough you see me standing with five hundred seedlings, as you pass me by. You have no time to spare for an impoverished farmer and I have to accept that.
I’m going to leave these seedlings here and vanish. Let’s see if it becomes food or trash.
Word Count: 98
Written in resposne to the picture prompt given by Ronda Del Boccio for Friday Fictioneers hosted by Rochelle Wisoff – Fields. Please find other entries here.
I’m left wondering whether your farmer is optimist or pessimist…
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He is neither. He’s just trying to send a message. If one farmer vanishes and his crops go to dust, no one will bother. What if, one thousand farmers vanish? Maybe more. This is what he wants the city dwellers to contemplate.
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Good to think it would become food but I have my doubts. Interesting take.
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Yes. In all probability, the seedlings will be ignored and end up in garbage. All he wants to show is what if a lot of farmers ignore their crops and vanish, what would happen then?
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Now, if only he said they were magic seedlings there might have been takers. A different way to grow beanstalks.
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If only things were that easy!
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Sadly, so true.
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Indeed.
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Its made me think I may rekindle my veg patch this autumn, thanks!
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Good idea to grow some veggies ourselves. There’s a nice crop of tomatoes coming up in my balcony.
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I once had mushrooms growing around the edges of my bath, a halcyon student days!
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Sadly the seedlings will become trash I expect. Food comes in bags on a shelf, after all…
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Yes, therein lies the problem. We are quite happy to buy the produce off the shelves without a single thought about the ones who break their backs growing them.
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I have to agree with everyone. This is very well done. And yes, sadly, all are in such a rush and can’t be bothered… yet, when they want to eat, they still don’t think of where it comes from.
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Unfortunate reality! But the underlying question is no one will bother if one farmer vanishes and his crops go to dust, but what if one million of them vanish? That’s what I was pondering when I saw the prompt. Thanks for the comment, Dale.
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I have some wonderful memories of farmers we knew when I was a kid. Salt of the earth. This is a poignant story, well written.
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That’s lovely to know, Linda. My mother’s great grandfather was a farmer and we did have a huge garden in which we grew a lot of fruits and vegetables. But all that was a couple of decades ago. In the modern age of living in apartments, we satisfy ourselves by growing some tomatoes in our balconies.
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A thought-provoking piece indeed.
Click to visit Keith’s Ramblings!
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Thank you, Keith.
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Dear Varad,
Thought provoking story. Where would we be without farmers?
Shalom,
Rochelle
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Scared to think, Rochelle. Thanks for the comment 🙂
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I think you nailed it with the observation that people look but they don’t see. Their minds are too preoccupied with their own little microcosm.
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Very true. Thanks for the comment, Russell.
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It’s a complex situation, farmers can only thrive if their customers thrive !
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Thanks for the comment, Michael.
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I like the concept of the one who can help, looking away, not seeing the distress, the need, the claim of the other.
Farmers,specifically, as i understand it, have a hard time getting paid a fair price for their food in the current system, and you have depicted his desperation, in that it is not even worth it, for him to bother taking the seedlings home. Powerful indictment, Varad.
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Lovely opening line! I really like the concept here. Great story.
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Terrific metaphor, Varad, and you’ve written it well. Farmers are vital, and we forget that at our peril.
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Nice question, food or trash. I guess most people cannot identify food unless it is on their plate and they are hungry. Most are more than happy eating junk (trash).
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Excellent take on the photo prompt, Varad. I’m betting no one will notice and the seedlings will become trash.
Susan A Eames at
Travel, Fiction and Photos
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In all probability, yes. But what if a million farmers vanish and all their crops go to dust? That’s what we need to ponder. Thanks for the comment, Susan.
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great concept here
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Thank you kindly, J Hardy.
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Brilliant option
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Thanks for the comment, Deepa.
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Great write!
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Thank you kindly.
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I wouldn’t hold my breath on the option of it becoming food. Not amongst these city-dwellers.
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You are correct. One farmer and his crop vanishes, no one cares. But, what if a million of them vanish? Thanks for the comment, Sandra.
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Where would we be without the farmers? Nice idea.
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At the speed at which the world is going forward, we are not far away from finding out. Thanks for the comment, Iain.
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