On the Way to School

trailing shadows

we hold each other’s hands
gripping our bags

listening for the bell
every day
we walk to school

we walk to school
every day
listening for the bell

gripping our bags
we hold each other’s hands

trailing shadows

Kim M. Russell, 7th August 2025

Oil painting Schulweg 49×67 cm, (WV-Nr.94) by Margret Hofheinz-Döring

This Thursday is the day for Meeting the Bar at the dVerse Poets Pub; today Merril is our host and we are revisiting the cherita, a form we last encountered in November 2023.

Merril has given us a brief background and official guidelines to writing cherita:

“Cherita is the Malay word for story or tale. A cherita consists of a single stanza of a one-line verse, followed by a two-line verse, and then finishing with a three-line verse”, although the order may also be inverted or turned upside-down: 3-2-1, or you can create a double cherita, where the second part mirrors the first: 1-2-3 then 3-2-1. A cherita is always untitled and without rhyme.

I have chosen the ekphrastic option Merril has given us, with an image by Margret Hofheinz-Döring.

49 thoughts on “On the Way to School”

  11. Intense, when mirrored like that, revealing new hues in the scenes when revisited. The mirror is almost like revisiting the words so many years later as moments of memories, or a new angle. I am quite taken by the effect of doing the simple technique—seemingly simple.

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    1. Thank you, Melissa. I think most parents feel that way now. My grandsons have been having a lovely time in Holland. They’re coming back today and I think my daughter is going to have a hard time.

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