Hello, dVerse Poets! It’s Merril–writing from southern New Jersey with another Prosery prompt.

It’s certainly been a crazy, stressful few weeks [years] here in the U.S., and I know the eyes of the world have been on us. Thank goodness for poetry and stories! I feel like I should have come up with a more cheerful prompt, but I wrote this before the news came on Saturday, and it sounds very November-ish to me.

For those who have not written for the dVerse prosery prompt–or if you need a refresher–here is an explanation.

Prosery is a piece of short prose that includes a line from a poem. I will give you the line, and then you incorporate it into your prose piece. It can be either flash fiction, nonfiction, or creative nonfiction, but it must be prose, not a poem. And it must be no longer than 144 words, not including the title. It does not have to be exactly 144 words.

You must use the line that I give you below. You may change punctuation and capitalize words, but you are not allowed to insert words in between the parts of the sentence.

I was browsing through Brainpickings, and I came across a poem by Liesel Mueller. I’ve selected this sentence:

“there is nothing behind the wall
except a space where the wind whistles”
from “Drawings By Children” by Lisel Mueller

You can read the entire poem here, and also watch/listen to Rosanne Cash’s reading of it.

Here’s how to take part in the Prosery Prompt:
– Write a piece of flash fiction or other prose (not a poem) of up to or exactly 144 words, including the given line.
– Post your Prosery piece on your blog and link back to this post.
– Place the link to your actual post (not your blog or web site) in the Mister Linky site.
– Don’t forget to check the little box to accept use/privacy policy
– Please visit other blogs and comment on their posts!