The beams of sunlight are palpableas they burst through the forest canopy,and I feel I am almost ableto feel the magic, Nature’s alchemy –through your eyes. With each step,you lead me by the hand into your world,a place of wonder where we stopto gaze at silver cobwebs and the curlof a russet leaf, or listen […]
The Perfume of Peonies
She raises the pink peonies, cool,damp leaves and petals a balmto her industrious fingers. Those dual-headed, blowsy globes grasped in her palmexude a fruity wisp of sweetnessthat makes her life much easier to bear.No customers notice the neatnessof her blouse, the pretty headscarf that she wearsto cover the cuts and bruises of her husband’s violence.She […]
Walkabout
It seems as if I have walked foreverthrough this life, on this pathfrom birth to death. Sometimes I have walked togetherwith friends and family,sometimes alone. Often the path meandered,for a while it took me off course,past woodland, pasture and meadow,past sheep, cow and horse. Now often on my walkaboutI sit down to ponder beneath a […]
The Knowing
Mother sat in a wicker chair on the doorstep of her cottage, rug over knees, wrapped in a shawl, looking up at the sky. She’d had a comfortable summer, her appetite had improved, and she rarely had to hide blood-streaked mucus in her handkerchief. Now she was constantly coughing and nodding off. We argued about […]
Jaded Glory
Darkness caresses the nightgarden with mysterious light.An overpowering fragrancespills into the air, starlit incensefrom the frothing honeysuckle,an unruly child that snugglesin the vacant arms of the cherry tree,whose glorious pink flowers,long jaded, have perished in showers. Kim M. Russell, 6th May 2024 Written for The Garden of Neuro Poetry Circle Quadrille Challenge Day 6.
A Room of One’s Own
surplus to requirementsjust over two point fourno room in the cramped flatand nowhere else to godreams to engenderI had to keep them safe, so… I found a box and put a room inside sofa surfing’s difficultbeing a burden’s worseit’s easy to lose friendseven easier to lose trustlife on the street’s dangerouspavements are cold and hardin […]
No Words
There is no such thing as completesilence. Just no spoken words.There is the muffled pad of socked feetacross the kitchen floor; the clock’s ticktock; the soft and loud song of birds;wind in trees and the creak of a branch;the hum of bees and distant traffic;white noise in the middle of the night;the low rumble of […]
Forget Me Not
Gazing at flowery constellationsclustered around the silver birchby the back gate, friends and relationscome to mind in a surge of blue.I don’t need to searchmyself, my heart or mind for embersof memories. I remember you,and wonder who will think of me,perhaps standing beneath a tree,ankle-deep in azure forget-me-notsblinking here on Earth, while Itwinkle above them […]
Medusa at the Supermarket
A hiss of hairuncoilsas I avert my stare,lowering turquoiseeyelids, mascaracoated lashes brushingmy pale powdered skin.I’m in the fruit section;with one hand I caressa pomegranate,with the other I pushback the stray curl.A couple and their little girlknock me with a trolley, unawareof me standing there,the darkest sunglasses pushedback on my head. I peerat their shopping, turn […]
Homecoming
What a welcome home,greeted by fields ablazewith magical lemon rapeseedflowers; by roadsides singingwith choirs of golden garlicmustard, their tiny torches burning;the shiny butter of celandineand pale lemon-drop cowslips,once shy, but now fillingevery patch of grass! Kim M. Russell 29th April 2024 Image of cowslips by Tina Sāra on Unsplash It’s Monday, at the dVerse Poets […]
writing in north norfolk 