Creative writing submission from the Rest Less community – submit your entry here.
I was torn from the limbs of a mighty oak,
which once stood strong,
rooted in the reign of Tudor monarchs,
anchored to its place before the trial of Faulkes,
before the Founding Fathers set sail
and the Baird took his final bow.
Now, crippled by age,
moss knuckled toes weaken in the eye of a storm,
cracking and shrieking I am flung into the fledging Dee.
Lying low springs her stream, little more than a silvered trickle
through drifts of waving bog cotton,
bulrush beds and whistling reeds.
Her river curve meanders past rich pastures and meadows,
babbling over rocky scree and wandering round vales of ancient woods
before tumbling into Bala Lake and winding through verdant Cheshire plains.
I drift headlong downstream, swirling into eddies,
performing a pas de deux with a haughty passing pen;
brushed along my way by the sweep of weeping willows
and coaxed by curious heifers, rooted in a deep pool wind.
A sentinel folded shadow, unflinching in the shallows,
while her quarry, locked in a breathless pause, cowers
beneath clouds of whispered spawn.
Dragonflies land their coloured engines,
perched for an easy jaunt downstream
past fishermen working their bright-feathered flies,
braced against the downward flow.
I drift under bridges,
past banks where marshy burrows conceal cautious eyes
and fallow, windswept nests await the warmer days.
I whirl in a thrashing vortex of Arctic winter fish,
generations of them inscribed into this river,
leaping the gravel headwaters,
honed to die on their homeward run.
Then eddying, headlong into the Irish Sea,
carried across shifting Barmouth sands
where sheets of bickering gulls soar on thermals
or sleep on their own reflection.
Caught up in a westerly flow and a gentle winter swell,
my odyssey transports me from the Dee to Dublin Bay.
Are you feeling creative? We are proud to have a hugely talented community on Rest Less, which is why we’re so excited to open up a section of the site dedicated to showcasing the wonderful and diverse writing of our members. If you have a piece of creative writing that you’d like to share with the Rest Less community – you can do so here.