Scatterbrain

Mother calls me a scatterbrain and a daydreamer. She doesn’t understand how it feels to be me, wanting to fly on the wind with shimmering wings when I’m tethered to house and garden.

I have so many chores, I don’t have time to read or finish writing the story Miss Thomas set for homework, about what it’s like to flourish as a seed. “I was shot out the back end of a blue jay when, heedless, she flew over the meadow,” is how I began, but Mother said it was inappropriate and I have to start again.

When I grow up, I want to be a writer. I’ll have a desk and a laptop, lots of little notebooks and pens I’ll carry in the big pockets of my jacket, for when I’m out and about, exploring the world, and I’ll never do chores again.

Kim M. Russell, 14th April 2025

Image by Getty Images on Unsplash+

This Monday at the dVerse Poets Pub we are writing Prosery, a very short piece of prose with a limit of 144 words, which tells a story with a beginning, middle and end, in any genre of our choice. Our host is Sanaa, and she has chosen a line from a poem by Lisa Bellamy, which must be included somewhere in our stories. As ever, we may change punctuation but we are not allowed to insert words in the quotation.

I admit, I had not heard of Lisa Bellamy, so I was glad that Sanaa included background information and a link to the poem, ‘Wild Pansy’, from which she took the line:

“As a seed, I was shot out the back end of a blue jay when, heedless, she flew over the meadow.”

Tricky!

32 thoughts on “Scatterbrain”

  1. This is gorgeously rendered, Kim! It is like this for so many people who are creative. I remember avoiding chores and being a daydreamer when I was a little kid.

    Thank you so much for writing to the prompt ❤️❤️

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  11. You have a writer-in-the-making there, Kim. She sure knows how to grab attention from the get go. Perfect lines to begin a story. And Mom will learn to love her stellar first lines too. I know. Wonderful. Thanks.

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  13. I think perhaps a writer/poet has to quickly do the chores, in order to be able to sit and write! Delightfully true words in your prosery, Kim! 😀

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