Nobody listened to the warnings, so when it came, it was a shock. The atmosphere was so badly poisoned by toxic smog from burning forests, exhaust fumes and waste, it leaked into space and discoloured the face of the moon. It just disappeared. After a number of years, older children had forgotten about it and […]
Month: September 2020
Before and After Flying with Dragons
Before in a vivid season, colours splash from an artist’s palette: ochre fields untold shades of leaves and grasses tumbling petals pink and yellow flashes […]
A phoenix poem must first burn
one ember ignitesinto undaunted new linesphoenix wings aflamepoems learn to fly againleaving their ashes behind Kim M. Russell, 9th September 2020 My response to Poets and Storytellers United Weekly Scribblings #36: ‘a phoenix first must burn’ Magaly is back this Wednesday, inviting us to birth new poetry or prose inspired by the phrase ‘a phoenix […]
Sudden Joy
The bay tree’s gone,chopped to let the sunlight in,but fighting back with fresh shootsand a surprisefluorescent yellow evening primrosegrowing at its roots. Yesterday, I walked in places new,soaked my idle boots in dewdodged overhanging branchesand brambles still heavy with plump fruit,past haystacks, across recently ploughed fieldsto sudden joy – a crop of […]
Self-Portrait with Hands
They have teased music from a classical guitar, woven brightly dyed wool into a winter knit, and pencilled themselves into a sketch. They cover my face now, as I pose before a speckled, frameless mirror tucked away, out of sight, under the stairs. She’s there, somewhere in the shadows, the one whose fingers plucked and […]
How Many Times
How manytimes have I eavesdropped onyour dreams? Laid my ear on your heart asit beat next to mine? Strained to hear your hopes and fearsas they whispered behind sea blue eyes?Drunk salt tears from eaves thattell no lies? Kim M. Russell, 7th September 2020 A triquain quadrille for dVerse Poets Pub’s Monday Eavesdropping
Eavesdropping
i am eaves- dropping on the rain dripping and the leaves whispering spiralling autumn secrets in a richly coloured helix hoarding them in gutters leaving them in piles to rust disintegrate into delicate skeletons cart- wheeling into winter colliding with snowflakes and falling stars Kim M. Russell, 7th September 2020 My quadrille for the dVerse […]
Armageddon Revisited
The man said global warming was fake news,a conspiracy, a feeble attempt to screwa thriving economy. The man said it was fine to own a rifle or handgun,as long as it was just for fun, to carry onhunting without a care. The man said he needed more electricity,forget turbines, solar panels and the sea,go nuclear. […]
Breath
an inhalationpenetrating lungs and soulexhaled as a breathmolecules of life and deathrecycled in sweet repose Kim M. Russell, 2nd September 2020 My response to Poets and Storytellers United Weekly Scribblings #35: The Joy of Rest Rommy says that, in today’s over-busy world, we sometimes forget the importance of taking a break, and she would […]
On the Soft Skin of the Underside
In the days of physical elasticity,instant sparks of electricityand youthful hunger,whether in daylight, twilight or moonlight,lips and teeth tended to tattoo and collide on the soft skin of the underside. Now I love to tangle in the copper hairon forearms, chest and belly, wherewinter frost has started to appear,but it is on the soft skin […]