Inspired by the Moon

She was twelve, and the summer holidays were only days away – no school, long days of freedom, and excitement in the air. Dad kept his promise. They’d watched the launch repeat on the news and then he woke her up in the middle of the night to sit side by side on the sofa, in front of their black and white television, sipping hot chocolate, as the American astronaut, Neil Armstrong, stepped into the Sea of Tranquillity. She savoured the words “That’s one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.” But she couldn’t get back to sleep. Shadowy figures crossed moonscapes in her mind, and her future pecked at its shell, ready to hatch.

In the morning, sitting at the breakfast table in her navy-blue uniform, she wrote her first poem, which started with the line ‘I dreamt I was the moon’.

Kim M. Russell, 22nd July 2019

Image result for Neil Armstrong on the moon black and white Pinterest
Image found on Pinterest

My response to dVerse Poets Pub Prosery: I dreamt I was the moon

Sarah welcomes us to our second ever Prosery prompt with a line taken from a poem and asks us to write a piece of flash fiction incorporating that line, in full, somewhere in the piece of prose. To make it a little more challenging there’s a word limit of 144 words. Sarah has chosen a line from ‘Full Moon’ by Alice Oswald: ‘I dreamt I was the moon’.

30 thoughts on “Inspired by the Moon”

  1. Oh, Excellent, Kim. You’ve given me goosebumps. Incredibly, when I chose the line I’d forgotten about THAT anniversary! My subconscious must have picked it out…
    This writing feels autobiographical.

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  4. Oh the synchronicity of it, for we poets did not forget. I love the nostalgic way you rocked the prompt. We had a color TV by then, but there were plenty of B&W sets still out there.

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    1. Thanks Glenn. We had black and white for years, and I can’t remember when I got my first colour one, probably when I bought my flat in Twickenham mid to end eighties.

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  7. Nicely penned! A great time in history should spawn all sorts of creative endeavors. I find myself hoping this is a true story.

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  10. A wonderful story of you as a schoolgirl. It brought back memories for me Kim. I was in the south of France as an au pair and watched it with my ‘family’. It was amazing. Thank goodness they didn’t dub Neil Armstrong’s voice!

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