What Goes Around Comes Around – Flash Fiction

What Goes Around Comes Around

As a child she remembered climbing on the rubble of what was once terraced houses.  Sometimes discovering staircases standing alone, still intact but minus the bannister 

A treasure trove of others belongings could still be found in the heap of bricks.  Books, sometimes photos with singed edges, a toy, or a tin of buttons.  

Looking back, understanding a child’s innocence of the horrors that had barely preceded her, she wondered “What are the roots that clutch, what branches grow out of this stony rubbish?”.  A debris of once loved abodes full of life becoming a playground wonderland.  

Then rising from the ashes to become concrete and glass, a new way of living for many in incomprehensible heights above a broken city bombed from recognition.

She stared up at a tower block born from that wreckage now decaying from neglect. What goes around, comes around.

Copyright © 2021 Christine Bolton - Poetry for Healing
All Rights Reserved

Mish is hosting Prosery Monday at D'Verse Poets where we write a piece of flash fiction no longer than 144 words. She has prompted us to include the following quote
from the T.S. Eliot poem The Wasteland.
“What are the roots that clutch, what branches growout of this stony rubbish?”

  20 comments for “What Goes Around Comes Around – Flash Fiction

  1. rajkkhoja
    December 21, 2021 at 11:40 pm

    Interested story. I like.

    • Christine Bolton
      December 23, 2021 at 8:37 am

      Thank you! ☺️

  2. October 15, 2021 at 4:29 am

    Evocative.

    • Christine Bolton
      October 15, 2021 at 9:32 am

      I remember those bomb sites 😳

  3. October 13, 2021 at 8:08 am

    This reminds me of what George Takei said about his experiences when his family was placed in internment camps for Japanese people in World War II. He said that through the eyes of a child, the experience was an adventure. When he looked back as an adult, he understood that it was far different for his parents.

    • Christine Bolton
      October 13, 2021 at 12:44 pm

      Yes, that is true, isn’t it? What a child sees as an adventure and a treasure hunt is different from the adult whose home was bombed out and all personal belongings gone. Thanks for sharing that ☺️

  4. Christine Bolton
    October 12, 2021 at 8:55 pm

    Thank you Carol Anne ☺️💕

  5. October 12, 2021 at 4:15 pm

    awesome story christine! Well done! <3

    • Christine Bolton
      October 12, 2021 at 10:28 pm

      Thanks Carol Anne ☺️💕

  6. Anonymous
    October 12, 2021 at 4:03 pm

    So many memories and lives lost in the rubbish. Heartbreaking.

    • Christine Bolton
      October 12, 2021 at 8:54 pm

      Hello Anonymous! Why does WP do that?! Thank you so much.☺️💕

  7. Helen L Dehner
    October 12, 2021 at 12:56 pm

    Indeed it does ~~~ well done!

    • Christine Bolton
      October 12, 2021 at 1:16 pm

      Thanks Helen ☺️💕

  8. October 12, 2021 at 12:10 pm

    A great perspective on the prompt. Treasures in the rubble… an interesting thought. We humans have been building up and tearing down since time began, it seems.

    • Christine Bolton
      October 12, 2021 at 1:10 pm

      Yes Dwight, except the debris I was referring to was due to Nazi bombing in the east end of London in WWII. Those bomb sites stayed around for years before rebuilding could commence. The homes were replaced with concrete tower blocks of flats. 😕 They look pretty crummy now. They should be torn down!

      • October 12, 2021 at 6:51 pm

        It was an awful time for sure. I imagine after sixty or seventy years they should be replaced!

      • Christine Bolton
        October 12, 2021 at 8:53 pm

        Yes indeed! ☺️

  9. October 12, 2021 at 11:28 am

    Sad and poignant story

    • Christine Bolton
      October 12, 2021 at 1:11 pm

      True story of WWII bombing of London Sadje. Thanks so much ☺️💕

      • October 12, 2021 at 1:29 pm

        You’re welcome

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