Just Between Us

Your cool breezeis a breaththat lifts my hair,  kisses my ear. I’m the only onewho’ll hear your voicein the thundering silenceof this April dawn. Everyone else is asleep,deaf to the poemthat hums in my head,thrums like a guitar string. I interpret your Morse codeof raindrops, transcribeyour windy whisper into words, recording our early morning conversation. […]

Don’t walk, swim!

My days at the local poolhave been reduced.No more quiet swimming on Fridays. That’s when they meander across lanes,chatting loudly about anything inane,getting in every swimmer’s way. I swim a length underwater and when I riseanother woman’s boobs are in my eyes –she doesn’t attempt to apologise. They’re not even swimming!They walk – or hang […]

Impossible Rainbows

The salt marsh fadesbeneath sky tinged with grey and a violet obsession. Wielding its thunder-axe,the storm’s hooves skid and the sky cracks fusing the horizon. Dandelions spatterverges, thirsting for some pitter-patter while I insist I’m right as rain. I’m ready to bravea nor’easter, given the promise of a stormy day and rainbows impossible to follow to their ends. Kim […]

Life Coach

I struggle to rearrangethe furniture of my own life,emotions are too heavy to lift. Even the dust bunnies hidingbehind the sofa are laughing at me. I give throwaway advice,take none in return,misunderstand the art of feng shui,the importance of decluttering. My thoughts are so jumbledI can’t fit them into boxes,and they spill across the floor,tripping […]

Letter To Myself Looking Back

Six years ago, in the fertile belly of pandemicspring, you were inside looking out. The street was quiet, no traffic, bar a delivery van,the driver masked and gloved, as were the single walkers, with or without dogs.Not even an aeroplane in the sky. The sun shone, flowers bloomed, but you wiltedin the stifled isolation of […]

Always a Poet

Neat and tidy, they played together,pouring invisible tea from a tiny teapot,serving imaginary sandwiches to dolls. I sit on the staircase of memory, digdeep into the toybox of the past and pull outbooks and a snot-filled tissue of lies. My sisters’ childhood was free of tears and worry.They never saw my mother’s bloody nose, nevercame […]

April Fools

i sun-sprinkled birdsongcracked joke of an empty egga fledgling’s first leapblown off course by spring wind’s roarmorning’s still dust-tongued with frost ii a purple floweramong drooping daffodilsstirring frozen heartsskin like petals unfurlingfeels the cold brush of winter Kim M. Russell, 1st April 2026 It’s the first day of the month and NaPoWriMo begins its poem […]

Doughty

Among globules of hail a single purpleflower stands resilient to the chill: a grape hyacinth shivering amongdrooping daffodils. They bloomed too soon, their yellow hurrahs loud and blatant,nodding and dancing in March winds. When the sun arrived, stirring our winter-frozen hearts, we peeled off a few layers, exposed skin like petals unfurling,only to feel the […]