Seven linen shirts spun from nettles and sewn with blistered fingers.Seven white wings thrumming overhead, returning from winter wastes. Seven brothers searching for a blistered sister.Kim M. Russell, 25th April 2024 Image from Birmingham Museums Trust on Unsplash On the 25th day of Na/GloPoWriMo, I have no idea what the prompt is at NaPoWriMo as […]
Plastic Earth
I’ve been thinking about getting a globe lamp for my grandson, so he can see the Earth lit up in his room and explore its mysteries and beauty. At six years old, he is interested in so many things and I would love him to extend that to geography and ecology, to look at our […]
Putting Pen to Paper
It’s happened again!I don’t know if it’s the penor the paper, but there are blotsand a swarm of purple spotsof ink where there should bewords. Or maybe it’s me. Changing the cartridge to bluedidn’t help, so it’s not the huethat’s causing the kerfuffle. I got up and filled the kettleto make myself a cup of […]
Bathing in Green
Drab khaki workaday realities disappear,become green bubbles in a flood of birdsong, and the garden is bathed in a green mere,viridescent ripples echoing all summer long. Green creeps from grass to leaf to tree, alongeach branch, farther than any wings can reach, over the top of the green-swathed beechand curly willow, from which a sole foliole, […]
A Call to Wise Women
Misunderstood throughout historyyou were tortured, drowned, burntand now, amid the intensityof climate change, plague and war,you have seen humankind at its worst. Forget the shamans,Mentors and Chirons,all male, muscle-bound,bristling with testosterone. We need you wise women,you Earth mothers who listento sky, air and soil beneath your feet,the quickening of the seasons’ beat.You understand the textures […]
Hunting Bedfellows
In the shadows of predawn, I’m wokenby companions of past and present,hunting my dreams until they’re broken.My ghostly bedfellows curiously hunt,purring, kneading, butting, knowingI will fill their dishes in the morning.They hunt me through the nightbut, once fed, they lick their lips,clean their paws and slipout to disappear into a brightnew day, off to haunt […]
Flocculent Pocket
At moonrise, balled emotionin my flocculent pocketunravels, creating constellationsfrom stars on my fingertips. In my flocculent pocket,a loose knit of present and past;from stars on my fingertipsa net across the sky is cast. A loose knit of present and pastunravels, creating constellations.A net across the sky is castat moon rise, balled emotion. Kim M. Russell, […]
Cat Musings
If I were a cat who walks by herself,a shadow leaping from a fenceto luxuriate in the long grass,I would sniff flowers as I passed. I would greet you with a head butt,having left a gift on the door mat;however, you would not appreciate it,but grimace and refuse to eat it. You would fail to […]
Tourniquet
A ripple of notes, a wavering flame,echoed in a gust of melody, is reclaimed. A hushed, unweathered voice modulateslike light tethered by an emotional tourniquet until the song spreads wings and skipson time changes like glottal stops. The volume dies, almost to a whisper,syncopated drum containing the pressure until low-tuned bass stringscrank up the volume […]
Mareel
You are a sparkle in the eyeof the ocean of the past,a persistent glint on the horizonof the future, the sea foamphosphorescence of autumn nights.You give me warmth in quiet moments,smiles and laughter through the day,and strength to continue when lifegets harder; you are my mainstay. Kim M. Russell, 16th April 2024 Image by Tom […]
writing in north norfolk 