In this series, I will take the Word of the Day from Dictionary.com and craft a short piece of creative writing around it. My goal is to embrace the meaning of the word in some unique way, all the while trying out different styles, rhythms and characterizations. It is as much an exercise in creativity as it is an exploration of grammar. Enjoy!
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By Alex Seise
Threshing was not for the sentimental. After a year of stable, strong fallow thriving in the field closest the rickety farmhouse, the family had grown used to the tall grasses and wildflowers that stayed around all season untouched. It was calming to have some stability. But threshing, the harvesting of the grains, was the story of this season. Loud equipment, long hours and decimated fields in the name of crop production unsettled the family who grew and grinned and groaned inside the home’s walls. One day, the eldest child stepped outside and plunged her hand into a basket of bone-dry chaff left on the flecked paint of the old wooden porch. She sparged a scoop on the wind, watching the dry husks from the grain tumble along the country road as the wind gusted strong from the west. The husks of the grains they grew, she thought, all gone in a flash.
