Secrets

The last raindrops drip from the leaves with a slowing rhythm, so Maude closes and shakes her umbrella, and continues along the brick-weave path. Her father designed many gardens before he was diagnosed with dementia and eventually disappeared from her life, and she only recently discovered the key to the ornate gate to this garden, which is surrounded by a high brick wall.

Maude uncovered her father’s secrets, having explored house and study, following clues he left before he lost his mind. Now, the future gathers in vine, bush, and tree: Persimmon, walnut, loquat, fig, and grape, his final secrets, and the best, because Maude is a specialist in fruit trees. Her own secret she kept from her father is that she works at the Royal Botanical Gardens, Kew. How did he know this secret garden would make her life complete? She’ll never know.

Kim M. Russell, 18th August 2025

Image by Tim Cooper on Unsplash

It’s Monday and at the dVerse Poets Pub we are writing Prosery, a very short piece of prose that tells a story, with a beginning, a middle and an end, in any genre of our choice, which has a limit of 144 words, and includes a complete line from a poem chosen by our host who, this week, is Sanaa.

Sanaa tells us that, while searching for poems on gardens, she stumbled upon one by Yvor Winters, an American poet, who is also new to me. She has chosen ‘Time and the Garden’ and the line: 

“The future gathers in vine, bush, and tree: Persimmon, walnut, loquat, fig, and grape.”

29 thoughts on “Secrets”

  2. This is absolutely stellar writing here, Kim! I love the idea of a secret garden that is surrounded by a high brick wall. Maybe the father understood his daughter better than we thought ❤️❤️

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