Ophelia

Author’s Note: This piece was inspired by the 2021 Escapril Day 4 prompt of “ghost.” Escapril is a month-long poetry and short-fiction challenge for the month of April.

The willow tree across the street always whispers to me.

It says:

“I watched a girl die once, drowned in the then-clear-blue stream that flows beneath my fluttering leaves. it was a slow death, her long auburn hair intercepting so many of my fallen petals before her body released one last shuddering breath and her soul slipped past my then-youthful roots and sunk into the Earth’s depths.”

The willow speaks of nothing but the girl and, whenever the birds sound off or the trees sway the wrong way, I can’t help but think of – sometimes even utter – her name:

“Ophelia.”