Written for dVerse Prosery – “Winter Lull” – hosted by
Merril who has asked us to write a 144-word
piece of prose, including the poetic verse
shown below. This is my response.
“It all belies our existence; we wait, and are still denied.”
from “Winter-Lull” by D.H. Lawrence
The calendar says mid-March and Spring is peeking ’round the corner. Still, the snow has been falling since before dawn …. softly, without urgency, as though the world has decided to rest rather than leap. There is a particular mercy in that quietude that asks nothing of us.
It all belies our existence; we wait, and are still denied.
Yet even so, the kettle is warm on the stove. A child’s boot print crosses the yard, filled now with fresh white, made new again. The bare oak at the fence line holds a single red berry no bird has claimed yet. Perhaps tomorrow.
Winter does not lie when it promises cold, nor when it promises that cold will pass. Something underneath the frozen ground is already deciding to return. We simply cannot see it yet, but it is there. It is always, quietly, there.
NAR©2026
144 Words
This is “Spring Can Really Hang You Up The Most” by Sarah Vaughan
Everything on The Elephant’s Trunk was created by me, unless otherwise indicated. Thanks for your consideration. NAR©2017-present.
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