Once inside, she removed her jacket and shoes, and padded on stockinged feet into the living room. She didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. Robert walked up and down one side of the room, pipe smoke trailing behind him, the little old lady had taken over Kay’s armchair and was busy knitting, while the […]
Month: February 2021
An Audience of Ghosts
Stained glass in the ornate dome is splintered by a single ray of sun, forming ghosts in the hippodrome, derelict music hall of burlesque fun. The eerie spotlight pans a vacant stage, traces phantom footprints in the dust, picks out shambolic sheen of bygone age, theatrical fixtures gilded with rust. Vacant seats echo with silent […]
Winter pulls its punches
just for a momentin its brutal course that covers all tracesof earth’s life force, icicles come alivewith a sweet green tinge and bloom as snowdropson the edge of spring. Kim M. Russell, 10th February 2021 My response to Poets and Storytellers United Weekly Scribblings #56: Hit Me With Your Best Shot This Wednesday Rommy asks […]
Dewy Mushrooms
A dewy forest of moons,a multitude of mushrooms,soaks in the weight of dawn. It’s snowing spore confetti,cheerful colour splashes:crimson, ochre, cream and rust. Puffballs and parasols,ink caps and champignons,frilly-gilled and plump of flesh, a festival of fungi sprouting earthy fresh. Kim M. Russell, 9th February 2021 My response to dVerse Poets Pub Poetics: Let’s have […]
Topiary
Trees whisper wintry secrets in the bare bones of their topiary, rubbing limbs with knurly suppleness, embracing silhouettes in their lacy canopy, growing side by side, content in their long marriage of species, a symphony of bark and knots, of sap and long-awaited buds. Kim M. Russell, 8th February 2021 My response to dVerse Poets […]
We are not all white stars
We are not all white starsthat fell from the sky. Some of us are amber and lignite,we never sparkle or ignite. We are beige and tawny yellow,ochre, black and brown. We are the colours of desert,sun-burnt grass and earth. I am a lion proud and wild,Mother Nature’s regal child. Kim M. Russell, 8th February 2021 […]
Next Door’s Ghosts Episode 4
Instead of Robert’s ghostly whistling she heard loud builders’ voices, and instead of Robert’s pipe, she smelled the builders’ roll-ups whenever they had a cigarette break. She prayed for a quick finish and cursed when it went on past Christmas and into the New Year. Maurice the ghost cat stayed with her throughout the noisy […]
Mist Clouds Troiku
roaring down the beach at the height of winter waves mist clouds Jane Reichhold roaring down the beach seaward between crumbled cliffs a harpy wind at the height of winter waves haunting the landscape whiff of wet dog mist clouds the gentle grey of seagulls smacking the water Kim M. Russell, 4th February 2021 My […]
Nell’s Legacy
Rain spits at the closed windowdripping with condensationand I’m listening a play on the radio,following in Nell’s footsteps. The iron steams. Clothes, rescuedfrom the line when the first cloudcracked, are scented with raindrops,creased and pleading to be smooth. Pressing fabric between iron and board,I breathe in warm memories, slipdown the years into a laundry-scented embrace,catch […]
Reheating a Cold War
Red geraniums rust in September rain and sparrows splash in puddles again. In summer’s hinterland, something is stirring leaves already yellow, their weariness showing, tattered and brittle, counting years with their falling. But still trees find safety in numbers, flourishing in ancient copses, forests and woods, growing together for the common good while men train […]
writing in north norfolk 