The grove was absolutely alive with ceaseless scintillation. Like a glorious blade pressed rapturously into the broken flesh of sultry mo(u)rning, the roots of the turgid trees bulged out over the undergrown, deeply browned grass. And stranger yet than the seemingly endless fields that harbored similar death-stricken vegetation all around this particularly somber wood, was the near fatal gleam that poured, curdled and lumpy from the century-old skin, which draped with elderly elegance over the prickly growths of the tree branches. The stark canopy was webbed together by every gnarly twig that grasped toward the sky’s surly façade of rich gray dyes. The languid vines that hung like needlepoint embellishments ‘round the stout tree trunks were pinched dry and an entire landscape of failed existence stretched out in every conceivable direction. The revolving ‘sphere above began grinding its gruesome teeth as a reminder of how impossibly dreary this place, wedged to the side of too simply complex a world, must have been. With a sudden, harsh gust of wind, the branches of the sullen trees scraped and scratched together, sending an unforgettable wave of sound whipping through the gloomy grove. As the grating noise cascaded among the trees, the blight-less beam that had warmed the icy surface of the plain receded into the now steaming sod. This redeeming white light that had graced the ill-fated forest fled, leaving everything unfortunate enough to still be standing there to dwindle slowly in the daunting darkness of this now absolutely inert grove grave.