Prosery? What is prosery?

Prosery is the d’Verse word for a flash fiction no longer than 144 words. The prompt is to listen to Bob Dylan’s Desolation Row from his 1965 hit record Highway 61 Revisited. To write a short prose and include the line ‘To her, death is quite romantic’. The moment I heard the line, Alfred Lord Tennyson’s poem The Lady of Shalott came to mind.
In this romantic fairy tale poem, the cursed Lady of Shalott looks at Sir Lancelot directly (instead of reflected in the mirror) from the window. She leaves the sanctuary of her tower to go to Lancelot, only to die in her boat before they meet.

“But Lancelot mused a little space
He said, “She has a lovely face;
God in his mercy lend her grace,
The Lady of Shalott.”

Alfred Tennyson (1809-1892)

A Fair Lady Looks Out of the Window in Self-Isolation Row

She is watching, as usual. He is there again, as usual. 
From her lockdown self-isolated window, she sees him run the same circuit with no change in routine. Even in the rain. 

One day, she thinks he looks up at her. Perhaps? She watches him turn the corner by the café and go out of sight. Her gaze lingers. The café where she used to meet her friends, is closed. Shuttered up. It looks as desolate as she feels. 

Next morning, instead of watching him from afar, she puts on her trainers and joggers and goes outside. He seems pleased to bump into her by chance. 

Later. On the Covid ward, a nurse in PPE looks at her through his face shield. 

She had never seen a man so handsome before. 

“She has a lovely face.” he says. 

To her, death is quite romantic.

Lesley Scoble   October 2022

Lockdown: jogger from a window | Photo: Lesley Scoble 

My thanks to d’Verse for this prosery prompt.

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