It’s Monday and, here at the dVerse Poets Pub, we are writing Prosery, the very short piece of prose or flash fiction that tells a story with a beginning, middle and end. It can be in any genre of your choice, but it does have 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.

If you’ve been taking part in the dVerse Poets Pub’s Prosery prompts for some time, you may remember that I love Derek Walcott’s poetry and have shared a previous prompt on ‘Love after Love’, one of my favourite poems.

While searching for a suitable summer poem, I found ‘Dark August’, a poem by Walcott that I hadn’t come across before. 

I was taken with the way this poem focuses on the emotional and intellectual journey of the speaker, despite the constant rain and the sun’s absence, and how they gradually come to appreciate dark days and the lessons they offer, a shift which resonates deeply with me.  I also love that it’s set in August, my birthday month, with the sun as a sister brooding in her yellow room while the mountains “fume like a kettle” – and the way she emerges “parting the beads of rain”.

On closer reading, we find a speaker grappling with a life overshadowed by absence and change after the departure of a significant person, whom the speaker addresses as “sun”.  The poem explores the impact of this person’s absence on the speaker’s life, a person who is the source of light and happiness, so much so that her departure has plunged the speaker into a state of melancholy.  Despite the initial despair, the poem shows the speaker finding a new perspective, with ‘dark August’ forcing him to confront a different reality.

I have chosen the following line to include in your prose:

“I would have learnt to love black days like bright ones.”

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 – and have fun.
• Prosery closes on Saturday 26th July 2025.