Sanctuary from a Rain Storm

On a fine day, I decide to visit Norwich. I drive to the park and ride, hop on a bus and, once in the city centre, head for Elm Hill, to explore its Tudor buildings, quaint shops and courtyards, which have been used often in settings for films, and are reputedly haunted.

Clouds gather overhead, I feel large drops on my face, so head for a courtyard to shelter from the storm. I peer into the dark entrance, hoping it’s not someone’s home. There’s a shop with old-fashioned awning and a full-blossoming tree, where city lilacs release their sweet, wild perfume then bow down, heavy with rain.

I approach the shop, but someone’s already beneath the awning, a woman in costume, a sprig of lilacs in her hair. There are no film cameras to be seen and, when I look again, I’m all alone.

Kim M. Russell, 12th February 2024

Image by Andréas Brun on Unsplash

It’s Monday and I am hosting Prosery at the dVerse Poets Pub with a spring theme. Prosery is a very short piece of prose that tells a story with a beginning, a middle and an end, in any genre of your choice — flash fiction with a limit of 144 words, and 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.

For many years I have enjoyed novels and poetry by British writer Helen Dunmore, who is Yorkshire-born; like its tea, her writing is full of Yorkshire flavour.  The lines I chose are from a poem called ‘City Lilacs’, from Glad of These Times (Bloodaxe Books, 2007):

‘…city lilacs
release their sweet, wild perfume
then bow down, heavy with rain.’

37 thoughts on “Sanctuary from a Rain Storm”

  12. Mustn’t blink your eyes, you’d see here run. Too late now though.
    Please don’t wipe my away, I have an inserted little poem. I’m trying to write hip hop stuff but not much help. Do you teach hip hop poetry to your kids?
    ..

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    1. I did write some hip hop poetry with students when I was still teaching, but only after a hip hop poet visited the school and gave us some classes and a performance.

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