a couple of hours
after emerging from theatre darkness
into the rain-streaked copper lightness
of a warm summer’s Saturday night;
Londoners and tourists alike
streamed into the Underground,
unaware that on London Bridge
people were falling down,
run down by extremists,
and Borough Market
was being knifed
in the beat
of its open, friendly heart.
Kim M. Russell, 2017
My response to Imaginary Garden with Real Toads Flash 55 PLUS!
Kerry is hosting the Flash 55 Challenge! She says the rules of this prompt have not changed: Write a piece of poetry or prose on a subject of your choice in precisely 55 WORDS.
We were in London last night. We’d been to see ‘Horror’, an amazing piece of mime theatre from Amsterdam. We left some time around nine o’clock and made our way back on the Underground, completely unaware of the events taking place in another part of London, where my great grandfather used to own a pub.
writing in north norfolk 
I’m so glad you were not closer… it’s so scary when it happens, but even scarier is that it starts to feel “normal”…
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Thank you, Bjorn. I have to go to Cardiff on Friday, via London. I’m already feeling nervous. 😕
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A sad and shocking event. I too am glad you were elsewhere. Your poem is succinct and vivid. I like the ‘falling down’ allusion re London Bridge, and the closing lines about the market.
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I’m so sorry. The last lines are beautiful in their vulnerability.
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The surreal nightmare has become the norm, an all too bleak reality. And the whole world shudders at each new wound in innocent flesh. Appalling.
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A heart recoils and goes into a defensive stance when angry blades appear. First dispatches and drafts like this assess what has been cut, what might be lost. And how much does that affect the day, the love, the work? Your tasks are many these days, and we’re listening.
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A tragic and shocking event. I am so relieved you weren’t there! Your poem is vivid and captures the scene well.
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My family used to live not too far away and my great grandfather had a pub on Borough High Street – my daughter used to go there a lot with her friends and had her ‘hen party’ there last year. It’s just so close to home.
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You have captured that horrific feeling that comes with an event so profound – that hollowing of the spirit. And we beat on. Beat on, my friend.
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Thank you!
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surreal indeed – yet it is becoming almost “normal” and that is what is so scary!
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