Evening Walk by the Light of an Early Moon

Heidi had met Charlie only a few days previously at the café where she worked as a waitress between lectures. They laughed when they discovered they were studying the same course, only he was a year ahead. The weather had been dire, raining every day, so they stayed in the café once Heidi’s shift was over, drinking hot chocolate and playing tunes on the jukebox.

Now the rain had cleared and the air was heavily scented with petrichor – Heidi’s favourite smell. They looked out at the rain dripping from the awning and a ghostly full moon reflected in a puddle, and agreed that an early moon is just a piece of change in the softening sky.

“My kind of currency,” said Charlie, leading her out of the door by the hand for their first evening walk together, smiling at the face on the moon.

Kim M. Russell, 5th June 2023

Image by Luca on Unsplash

It’s Monday and Merril is our host at the dVerse Poets Pub for this month’s Prosery, when we write flash-fiction or creative non-fiction (but not poetry), with a maximum of 144 words (not including the title). Most importantly, it must include the given poetry line, word for word, within the prose, breaking the line only to insert or add punctuation, but not changing or inserting words in the prompt line, or breaking up the prompt line with sentences or paragraphs.

I agree with Merril that it’s almost as much of a challenge to choose the prompt lines as it is to respond to them, so I was delighted to read this month’s prompt line from James Masao Mitsui’s ‘Spring Poem for the Sake of Breathing, Written After a Walk to Foster Island’. The prompt line is:

“An early moon is just a piece of change
in the softening sky. “

Merril has also provided a link to the full poem, which I enjoyed very much.

40 thoughts on “Evening Walk by the Light of an Early Moon”

  1. I LOVE this one, Kim! It flow so well–and it’s a complete story, though it could be continued (just sayin’). 😉 I really liked how you inserted the prompt line then followed it with currency. I’m very pleased you enjoyed the prompt and the poem!

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    1. I would be too if the weather here was better. It is so cold. Everywhere else in the UK they’ve been having high temperatures and sunshine, but East Anglia is miserable.

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  12. A nice story, Kim, nice reading. And the puddle, what a place to view, the Early Moon, which I always envisioned as being large on the horizon and bright.
    Question, do you sometimes unknowing to them tease your students? The Moon in the puddle reminded me, being larger looking at moonrise than up in the sky, I would ask the class,” why?”. Some would try to answer but they would give up when they couldn’t come up with the correct answer. Giving up time, I would tell them that I didn’t know either, no one does. Scientists can’t come up with agreeable answers that science can prove.
    Was I mean?
    ..

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    1. Thank you for the lovely comment, Jim. Oh yes, I used to tease my students, and they knew it! It’s not mean at all; it just makes them more curious and eager to learn,

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  15. for their first evening walk together,
    smiling at the face on the moon.

    Great to have a happy ending Kim! Always love for one such ending!

    Hank

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