Petulance

The wind kicks fallen
leaves around the garden,
a petulant child
with a new pair of Wellington boots.

Unlike the usual November grey,
the sky looks grizzly,
ready to burst into tears,
one raindrop squeezing,

dropping
on almost dry washing.

I shake my finger.

Kim M. Russell, 25th November 2024

Image by Chris Lawton on Unsplash

It’s Quadrille Monday at the dVerse Poets Pub, and Lisa is our host, ‘with a little help…’

If you’re not familiar with the quadrille, its name is taken from an 18th century dance, but as you may know, it is also a poetic form, devised by dVerse, of just 44 words (not counting the title) and includes one word provided by our host.

Lisa tells us that she has been reading Bono’s (2022) book, Surrender: 40 Songs, One Story. She says, “The title of the book highlights a state of mind I’ve been trying to cultivate over the last couple of weeks. It speaks of not only surrendering to the now but to acknowledging we are all in this one story together.”

Our prompt word today is ‘with’, “an inclusive word that it is probably in a zillion poems”. Lisa found her starting point for this word in a list of influential women poets over time and over the globe, and has provided excerpts from poems by Jenny Zhang, Sarojini Naidu, Hilda Doolittle and Denise Levertov to inspire us.

37 thoughts on “Petulance”

  2. Kim, I love the way you imbue nature with the character of a petulant child. I also love your interaction with it. I know the wind saw you shaking your finger and smiled. Such a good poem, my friend.

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    1. Thank you kindly, Lisa. I’m so glad you enjoyed it! I’m off to help look after my grandsons on Sunday, I’m staying for a week ,and we’re having a little piece of Christmas in advance, as I won’t be with them for the day. It’s to make up for missing Louie’s birthday last month.

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  8. Scolding the rain, I wonder if it listened? We had some much needed rain here for a few days as there were some wildfires not far from here in the mountains. The rain was a blessing.

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  11. we have had some extremely stormy weather cimplete with the raucous thunders and intruding lightning over the weekend.

    Nice how you image your wind in this quadrille

    much♡love

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