It’s the beginning of February, spring is poking its head around the corner of winter. It’s also Monday and, at the dVerse Poets Pub, time to write Prosery, the very short piece of prose that tells a story with a beginning, a middle and an end, in any genre of your choice. Welcome poets!

I’m Kim from writinginnorthnorfolk.com, and we are writing flash fiction with a limit of 144 words; an additional challenge is to hit 144 exactly. The special thing about Prosery is that we give you a complete line or two from a poem, which must be included somewhere in your story, within the 144-word limit.

For many years I have enjoyed novels and poetry by British writer Helen Dunmore, who is Yorkshire-born; like its tea, her writing is full of Yorkshire flavour. Dunmore began to write poems as a child, and has published nine collections of poetry.

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The lines I chose are from a poem called ‘City Lilacs’, from Glad of These Times (Bloodaxe Books, 2007), which contains a hint of spring, the changing season in a city’s ‘crack-haunted alleys’, where prostitutes ply their trade. The lilacs in the poem are also a metaphor for finding beauty in the unlikeliest of places, in city life’s ordinariness. You can read the whole poem here.  

^{Image by Julia Butsykina on Unsplash}

It was a difficult choice but, as this prompt is looking forward to spring, I would like you to write a story that includes the following line(s) from that poem: 

‘…city lilacs
release their sweet, wild perfume
then bow down, heavy with rain.’

Here’s how to take part in Prosery:
–   Write a piece of flash fiction of up to or exactly 144 words, including the given line in the order in which it has been given. You may add or change punctuation, but you may not add words in between the given ones.
–   Post your Prosery on your blog and link back to this post.
–   Link it up to our Mr. Linky.
–   Don’t forget to check the little box to accept use/privacy policy.
–   Visit other blogs. Enjoy some amazing writing, and don’t forget to comment.