Search
My feed
1 Sep, 2024

An Unlikely Pair

walking_together_promo_1_landscape_empty copy

Long listed for the Write about Walking Together competition 2024


An Unlikely Pair – written and ready Sarah Leavesley

One has a chronic condition that wheezes his breathing. The other has a chronic condition that messes up her blood sugar. Best not get started on age and arthritis.

Tree roots’ bare bones curve across the towpath; stones muscle the rain’s muddy entrails, slowing everything except the still water.

He is slightly breathless; she takes glucose to fuel her next steps.

They pause to look through the whispering reeds, at the baby ducklings, the red- beaked moorhens and their own silvered reflections.

Their different paces, pulses and personal difficulties make them an unlikely pairing, yet still they walk and talk, walk and pause together.

Blossom snows the trees and ground. Late-afternoon light tattoos leaves onto their clothes and skin, wrinkled with years of weather and walking.

Behind them in the hedgerow, an oak entwined with ivy – unfurling new green hearts in spring, blessing the autumn with acorns.

A yellow butterfly flickers across. She laughs as she points it out to him; instead he looks at her and smiles.

Both are breathless now with wonder, both re-energised by the dancing leaf-light and the sun’s warmth on their faces.

They reach a puddle as wide as the path. No way to gauge its depth, in the rippled surface of sky and cloud.

He holds out an arm to help her over. Hand in hand, they continue onwards, leaning into each other’s knots and gnarls like oak and ivy.


  • Read other pieces in the Write about Walking Together competition long list
  • Itching to write something yourself? Submit a piece to our Shorelines project, and invite your friends to read it aloud. Join one of our creative writing workshops or keep up to date with all our competitions by signing up to our ‘Walking Writers’ newsletter here or to our curated newsletter that covers all things about walking art here.

APA style reference

Leavesley, S. (2024). An Unlikely Pair. walk · listen · create. https://walklistencreate.org/2024/09/01/an-unlikely-pair/

Writing Competition 2024 Walking Together Long list

Collection · 27 items
poetry
Sound Walk September
walking
walking writing
creative writing
Walking Together
longlist

Related

walking_together_promo_1_landscape copy 2
post

Walking Together

Shani Cadwallender gives her view on "Walking Together" the theme to this year's writing competition.


4 thoughts on “An Unlikely Pair

  1. Pingback: Autumn Loveliness

Leave a Reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

trespassing

crossing a line (entering an area without permission)

Added by Ienke Kastelein

Encountered a problem? Report it to let us know.

  • Include the page on which you encountered the problem.
  • Describe what happened.
  • Describe what you expected to happen.