It was the season of drifting scents,
ice on the windscreen,
pine needles on the wind.
Outside, Christmas roses still clung
to thorny stems and I longed for secateurs
to deadhead delicate corpses
but could not bear to touch petals
the colour of bruised skin.
Instead I opened a window to cut
the cloying breath of flowers in her room.
Now I lift the lid of a cardboard box
stuffed with crackling photographs
and treasure the fading monochromes
that echo with her laugh.
The only image that refuses to fade
is the one that clicked in my head
of her gaunt body and blue eyes turned to grey
on that last day.
Kim M. Russell, 30th September 2018
A poem I wrote for The Poetry School Decisive Moment Studio, which I am linking to Poets United Poetry Pantry.
writing in north norfolk 
Powerful with emotions of loss and fondness.
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Thank you, Joseph.
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Secatuers. I had to look that one up. I’ve been using them and didn’t know them by that name
Happy Sunday Kim. Thanks for dropping by my sumi-e Sunday today
Much💛❤💛love
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Happy Sunday and much love, Gillena! 🙂
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Oh the memory of her on that last day! Such a loss. What a beautiful photo, Kim.
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Thank you, Sherry.
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This poem left me with a lump in my throat. Yes, sometimes the images in our mind are much stronger than the images on photographs. Just attended a funeral yesterday. I had seen him two weeks ago – and my last ‘image’ of him fits with your last stanza. The gauntness is something one doesn’t forget….
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Thank you for your comments, Mary.
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WOW. I was there. Deadheaded delicate corpses really got me and the last stanza.
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Thank you, Colleen.
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Oh this is so poignant! I can relate to the feeling of having a memory that’s even more fresh and intense than one in photographs.. I lost my cousin in the year 2007 when she was merely 21.. it was very sudden and unexpected as I had just visited her 48 hours earlier.
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Thank you, Sanaa. Although death comes to us all, it is so difficult to cope with it.
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How effectively you capture the juxtaposition between life and death.
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Thank you, V.J.
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deadhead delicate corpses, what a phrase of that pruning… but I think it’s the hardest thing we go through.. a wonderful poem
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Thank you, Björn.
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The progression is perfect… the way the first stanza squeezes at the heart, how it makes it hurt, and then we get to exhale in the middle stanza, and the last gives us bittersweet relief… The rhyme, in the last stanza is… just perfect. Like a chant and a prayer, a soothing reminder…
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Thank you so much for the close reading, Magaly, and for appreciating the rhyme.
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It took a friend being gone for a little bit before I could remember him in full health, the image of him days before death were so firmly etched in my mind. This is touching, and delicately done.
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Thank you.
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You captured the difficult contrasts among life, images, death–in ones we love and in flowers. Such a complex poem! It moved me back and forth and finally to stand facing death. Tears.
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Thank you.
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Poignant!
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Thank you!
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The gauntness, the eyes fading into the skin. This is a heartbreaking read Kim. Especially the last day. I remember my mother’s eyes as well. I especially live this pic of the two of you. I can see your resemblance to your mother in this one. The looking at the old b&w photos and the echoing of her laughter is especially poignant in this poem
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I knew you’d appreciate this poem, Toni. Thank you.
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Ah yes, that final image is hard to get past!
This is beautifully written, Kim.
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Thank you, Rosemary.
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This is so beautifully – and tenderly – drawn. Lovely, evocative lines that cascade to a poignant and powerful close … sharp and as hauntingly enduring as the click of a camera shutter.
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Thank you so much, Wendy.
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Monday WRites 174 is live. I invite you to link up
much love
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Thanks Gillena! I’ll be along later. Much love to you!
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Such a deep poem! xoxo
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Thank you, Annell! 🙂
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