Shadows are not concreteyet they creep beneath your feet. You can see but you can’t hearthem, and they always disappear. In the summer, they often lingerlike gunpowder from cannon-fire. Though short-lived, shadows strollinto infinity together with your soul. Kim M. Russell, 10th April 2024 It’s 10th April and we are one-third of the way through […]
Month: April 2024
History Box
My box is made of cardboard,the largest of a trio I boughtfor myself: pale blue, adornedwith simple flowers, it hasa metal handle, and a whiteribbon to stop the lid from closingwhen I explore what’s inside.It’s a practical box. In my box are imagesin sepia, monochromeand colour, higgledy-piggledy,no order, like life. Theychronicle a family of fivegenerations […]
Ode to a Small Bowl of Granola
Your forbidden glucose-ridden sweetnessbeckons from the confinesof a Delft-blue dish.Three fat dollopsof fat-free yogurt,ice cold and freshfrom the fridge,cover your contoursof fruit and nut-studded oat clusters.And you waitfor a spoon to breakyour golden crispnesswhile I anticipatethe first bite of crunchiness. Kim M. Russell, 9th April 2024 Image from Unsplash in collaboration with Monika Grabkowska On […]
Does It Matter?
They had finished their midnight picnic and were lying on a blanket, fingers entwined, in the garden, in the middle of the night. There was only a thin crescent moon, like a brooch on velvet, but stars filled every crease and crevice of the sky, shimmering, twinkling and swarming. ‘It’s hard to imagine that stars […]
Leda’s Lament
I used to love the haunting songof low-flying swans, their trumpetinga welcome herald of spring,their wingbeats a gentle breath passing overhead. Now, they remind me of the threatof his yellow beak and wingsbeating me into submission. I wish I could fly away and hide my conditionuntil I become a mother,when I will no longer fear […]
Wish You Were Here
The Belvedere in Vienna has no beach towels,rows of deckchairs and rainbow parasols,sandcastles, sparkling water and beach balls. There is no beach, you know I like to go off track,but even at the museum I found a postcard rackfrom which to choose some artwork to send back. I saw this one and thought of you […]
I Wasn’t Born Yesterday
Hunched at the dinner table,meal untouched and cold,I was about to slip downwhen Dad said: ‘Ungrateful child,refusing to eat your food.I wasn’t born yesterday. Stop lyingand crying and go to your room!’But you were born before me,way back in history, and youshould have known better.Once upon a time, in the yesterdayof war, you were sent […]
The Frustration of the Teacher, the Magpie and the Ocean
Frustrationsaid the teacheris a class of geniuseswith fingers tappingon mobile phoneswhile I getno response Frustrationsaid the magpieis being an extraordinaryordinary thing of naturebut the only interest I getis when I perchon a horse’s head Frustrationsaid the oceanis using my stomach-churning powerto pick bits of a wreckedboat out of the blackfangs of rocks Kim M. Russell, […]
Palinode to a Birds-Eye View
A journey doesn’t have to beginwith a fluttering of wings;I would rather not fly –I want to leave the skyand walk. I am not a rising larknor an owl that swoops in the dark;I prefer to skitter like a turnstoneamong limpets and cuttlebone,dashing up and down the shore.I don’t want to feather salt-washed air!I would […]
A Flower That Grows Through Solid Ice
Blue moonwort in the throesof autumn: leathery leaveshug earth, awaiting winter snows. But with spring comes rebirth:melt trickles down to rootlets,sparking growth, and a flame of energy ensues,warming floral tissues,melting ice-encased uprising buds. Stems push up as waterflows to roots. Boring throughremaining ice the moonwort bluesair, greets sun, entices bees. Kim M. Russell, 4th April […]
writing in north norfolk 