Writing Exercise 1: Garden of Fear

Exercise:
Topic: Fear
Point of View: third
Use the following: tomato, green, pink, water, aruba

Don't use any proper nouns, even naming of characters.

The only birds left in the garden were crows, their feathers glossy with black oil. The tomato plants lay in ruin, their juices running over the torn soil to gather in shallow hollows and form puddles that resembled vials of spilled rose-water, but did not smell as sweet. One ripe tomato hung, suspended by a bare thread of green vine, and the crows took turns tearing at its flesh. The tomato twisted in an errant breeze and the lip of a grievious wound came to light. It began as a small slit, barely enough to reveal the first layer of tender pink flesh, but the cut deepened and spread, finally releasing the small yellow seeds at the tomato's heart. This is how it is best to describe the politics in Aruba. The appearance of abundance and prosperity, growing on the vine. The sunny day enjoyed, with no thought to the crows. The tomato, twisting, on a tenuously held vine. The largest crow eyed the tomato, its dark eyes casting the garden in shadow.