Night Sounds

Above the garden, diamond sparkles fill the sky and the moon is a thin slice of lemon light. An owl floats, a slow ghost fading into shadows. Even the breeze is soundless. I’m beginning to feel that I’m alone on this planet, when far away an interrupted cry causes a rip in the silence – and then it starts. A goatsucker, the ancient nightjar, bursts into uncanny nocturnal churring and close by there’s an echoing bark – a fox or a muntjac? Or is it a madman barking at the disappearing moon? Leaves rustle, even the weeds beneath my feet seem to be on the move, tangling around my ankles, and my big toe erupts with pain as I trip over something hard. In the dwindling moonlight, a pale face stares up at me, its stone mouth agape in agony. The sleeping gnome is awake.

Kim M. Russell, 10th June 2019

thesolitudeofgreen

My response to dVerse Poets Pub Prosery #1

This week Björn has introduced our new writing prompt:  flash fiction consisting of a beginning, an end and something in between, dVerse style. Our flash fiction is called prosery. it has a limit of 144 words (a gross or an additional hundred words to a quadrille), with an additional challenge to hit the 144 words exactly, and a similar constraint to the quadrille: we are given not just a word but a complete line from a poem, which has to be included somewhere in our stories. 

For this first prosery prompt, Björn asks us to write stories with a maximum of 144 words which must include the line: “When far away an interrupted cry”, which has been taken from the poem ‘Acquainted with the Night’ by Robert Frost.

47 thoughts on “Night Sounds”

      2. 🙂 Nothing in our garden worries me at the moment. If it gets hotter we might see an adder or two but then it’s more the cats I’m concerned about.

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  2. You had me at “diamond sparkles” and what a scary ride from there on. The sounds ripping the silence is such an amazing (and again, frightening!) description.

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  8. No way no how am I going to be out in the woods or even the back yard in the dark. For just that reason. No gnomes but some pretty big — and probably hungry when they wake — stone frogs. Your feet getting tangled in the moving undergrowth got to me. Such a scary story!

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  9. Gnomes can waken? (wasn’t there a Dr. Who episode about this – or was it angel statues?) yikes “even the weeds beneath my feet seem to be on the move,” – this was certainly a creepy line for me. Enjoyed this very much.

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