This week my friend Lisa of dVerse Poets Pub has given us the following prosery prompt from Adrienne Wu’s ‘Oolong’:
“every day unfurls as it must”
and the following constraints for using it:
• Write a piece of flash fiction or other prose up of up to or exactly 144 words, including the given line from the poem.
• Post your Prosery piece on your blog and link back to this post.
• Please visit other blogs and comment on their posts!
So in the spirit of tea-drinking, in which Lisa presented her prompt, here’s my personal take upon the calming blossoms and resilient fibres of the Common Lime /Linden tree, Tilia x europea.
∞ tilleul ∞
yeah every day unfurls as it must, the banner rolled tightly clasped to your heart until you dare to let go of it and trust to the release of your truth toward the waiting world, a world not so such Ungrateful as Unaware, Unready (like King Aethelred*) to take the lead in diplomacy
yes, every day unfurls as it must, and your absence on my unrolling timeline makes me less sad now than accepting - with as much grace as I can muster - that your time has not quite come to play court to my high sky aspirations
yet, every day unfurls like it must, patiently, as if each tender leaf of the Linden-tree opens to May-time energy and accepts the sovereign light, weaving with sunbeams towards strength; renewing the bast fibres towards coiling, yielding, into the resilience of this infinity sign, dearheart
© Kathy Labrum McVittie 16 July 2024
tilleul: a calming tea of linden/lime tree blossom; linden tree bast, below the bark, can be used as cordage
* a derivation of the name Aethelred is here
writingpresence 
It’s amazing how much you can pack into such few words. This merited a few reads and each is as lovely as the last. It feels quite personal, especially S2, though S3 is the one that spoke most to my garden-loving heart. We have a bush in Florida (and through much of the US) called American beautyberry (Callicarpa americana) which your linden’s leaves reminds me of.
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Just revisiting this post from 13 months ago and finding your lovely comment unanswered, Cris – apologies!
I looked up American Beautyberry and was delighted to recognise it as the exotic purple-berried Callicarpa that I encountered in a neighbour’s garden many years ago when I was doing a weed-and-tidy job for him.
The plant still survives – new owner now – and further up the road are Linden trees that shed twigs periodically. The bast fibre is pressed out onto the road by passing cars. You would know linden as Basswood:
https://florida4h.ifas.ufl.edu/florida-4-h-forest-ecology/forest-ecology-contest/contest-stations/trees-of-florida/american-basswood/
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Tea as balm, but also signifier of absence too, this piece snook up on me.
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I had previously made for that person a woven construction including an infinity twist of lime bark and bast. Can’t lay my hands on the photo yet, but will try to locate it!
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Kathy, repetition works well here as it introduces each stanza and its circumstances. Wondering if I can find tilleul tea to try some. Love the imagery in your poem.
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