Buzzard

It was one of those days when all I wanted to do was walk until my legs ached, the best way to clear my head of the pressures and worries that weighed it down. Solitude and fresh air were the only remedy, even on an exceptionally hot June day. I tugged on my straw hat, stepped outside, and shut the door behind me.

There were birds and insects everywhere; I couldn’t always see them but heard their summer symphony, underscored by the long grass as I climbed the hills so dry – so dense the underbrush – that, where I pushed my way, the giant hush was changed to soft explosion, and a buzzard rose into the air, a rabbit clutched in its talons. I was so surprised that all my problems rose into the air with it and drifted upwards into the sky.

Kim M. Russell, 8th June 2026

Royalty-free AI-generated image found on Dreamstime.com © Wang Suiw Tong

It’s Monday and at the dVerse Poets Pub it’s time for Prosery with Sanaa and a view from the hills.

Prosery is a very short piece of prose that tells a story, with a beginning, a middle and an end, in any genre with a limit of 144 words, and which includes a line or a couple of lines from a poem. We may change punctuation but must insert words in between parts of the quotation.

Sanaa gives us background information on Yvor Winters, the American poet, literary critic, and professor whose poem she has chosen for this week’s Prosery: ‘On a View of Pasadena from the Hills’. The line to include in our prose is:

“The hills so dry, so dense the underbrush, that where I pushed my way
the giant hush was changed to soft explosion.”

26 thoughts on “Buzzard”

  10. First, this was far more uplifting than the original line suggested, so, good for you.

    Second, my nickname in high school was Buzzard, because at the time I was into making “found art” sculptures, and was picking trash, lol. So I loved the reference.

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