A Parka for Your Soul

I hadn’t seen Miranda since school. We sat together, walked home together, and wrote poetry in her bedroom, which she didn’t have to share with siblings.

I spotted her on the pavement, shivering cross-legged on a folded-up cardboard box. Matted hair poked out of a beanie. She wore a tatty jumper; there was no coat to be seen, not even a rolled-up sleeping bag.

I watched her bite a piece of skin from nails already nibbled to the quick and knew I couldn’t leave her like this.

‘Hi Miranda. Remember me?’

Her gaze travelled from my comfy boots, over my clean, warm clothes, up to my face. I removed my brand-new padded coat and held it out to her.

‘Take this, and make of it a parka for your soul’.

Her smile was enough to keep me warm for the rest of the day.

Kim M. Russell, 17th February 2025

Image by Curated Lifestyle on Unsplash

It’s Prosery this Monday at the dVerse Poets Pub, and Lisa, our host, has us making a parka.

Lisa took the title of her prompt from a line in an Alice Walker poem, ‘Before you knew you owned it’, and she has given some background to Alice Walker, her writing and the poem. The line we are incorporating in our 144-word prose is:  “Make of it a parka / For your soul.”

Lisa says, ‘Staying warm in what feels like an increasingly cold world can be a challenge. Today’s prompt challenges you to look deep and imagine in prose how one may build a parka for the soul.’

40 thoughts on “A Parka for Your Soul”

  2. Kim, I love what you did with the line. The idea of coming across a childhood friend in such a state brings tears to my eyes. To her, you are an angel coming to take her from hopelessness. It may be a major turning point in her world.

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  3. Oh this is so so very sad….except you add the touch of kindness at the end. These words were so visceral for me: I watched her bite a piece of skin from nails already nibbled to the quick “

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    1. Thank you, Nolcha. I suppose it depends where you live. In London, for example, there are so many homeless people, I doubt I’d come across anyone I would know. But out here in the sticks, I might come across someone. I used to take sandwiches to someone I passed every day in the underpass on my way to work in Norwich. One day he told me that the council had found him somewhere to live, but he needed various things. I took him a spare duvet and blankets. I didn’t see him after that.

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      1. You have a big heart, Kim. A very big heart.

        The weather in Wyoming is so inhospitable, even the tourists don’t stay around long. We have a program in town to help anyone who wanders in.

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      1. Gently does it, Kim. Just sip of refreshing fluids, tender soups. And nibbles of toast, oatcakes… nothing heavy. At such times I get out the remaining kiddy cutlery that I have, for careful portion-sizing!

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  14. You touched upon a major theme there…of how life happens….how things come and go..I liked the philosophy behind the words..the story was warm….but I fear for her…I feel she will not make it back into society.

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  17. There is simply no way anyone with a heart can read your beautiful prosery without shedding a tear …. I know I did. There are way, way too many homeless folks here in Bend Oregon. I belong to a ladies book club, we maintain a large bag we fill with clothes such as sweaters, socks, coats, hats, gloves and when the bag is full, one of us hauls it the our largest shelter.

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