Someone’s coming! Someone’s coming!!!

Junior here has a voice or what?

Boots! OMG, boots! We are going to be crushed to pulp.

Where? Where?

Over there, coming towards us! We are going to be crushed to death!!!

Stop being so melodramatic. And those aren’t boots by the way, just normal walking shoes.

Cut him some slack. He is yesterday’s growth.

Er.. umm… No. I was here last Friday. Almost a week now.

It was just a metaphor…. Oh never mind.

Lol. Oh yeah. That makes you really grown up. <eye roll>

Hey I told you to cut him some slack.

Friends, I am feeling a little nervous here. The boots.. I mean the walking shoes are really close now.

So? She comes this way often.

I know. It’s not as if she is the gardener or something come to pull us out.

Wha….? Someone pulls us out?

You bet they do. By our tufts.

But why?!!! What harm are we doing to anyone? I thought we were welcome everywhere.

Don’t ask me. How would I know?

Don’t we make the hills and valleys beautiful by covering them up in pretty shades of green?

Well, the humans like the domesticated kind who kowtow to their wishes, not us the wild ones. We are persona non grata in most places.

Persona non grata? What’s that?

It means you are not welcome, you duffer. Didn’t your dad teach you anything?

Leave my dad out of… Oh my! Who is this tall person?

Tall?? Bwahahahaha. She is not even five feet. Used to be, but I heard her tell someone that she is now almost a centimetre less. Something about humans shrinking as they age. Or it could be osteo poro something or other.

What’s she doing standing so close to us? I am scared.

Don’t be afraid. Stand straight. Spread your arms out. And smile. She is taking our picture. We are going to be famous.

Eh? Picture? What’s that?

You see that thing in her hand? It’s called a phone. She goes around clicking insects and leaves and raindrops and random stuff like that when on her walk. Looks like it’s our turn today.

And then she posts them on her blog.

Blog? What’s that?

Gawd. He knows nothing!

It’s where she posts asinine stuff she writes. For some reason people come and read it. Really! Humans seem not to have anything better to do.

And what’s it that you do then?

Umm er… stand and stare? I believe some poet said that that’s what one should aspire to do with one’s time.

Shail Mohan 2023

FOWC: Valley, Thought