Shared memories fill quiet moments like the stuffing in the sagging sofa where we sit with cats on laps, content. Outside, the willow fills the garden with shadows, which the sun fragments and enamels copper and golden. The drapes of night make their descent and memories turn to dreams; the more my mind’s eye sees […]
Category: Poems
Transparency
She saw through him, the last glass eel of summer, tinkling and shattering up the river with a shiver like a lost star in an alien galaxy, a long way from the Sargasso Sea. She felt sick as she let the slick predator slip through her fingers in whirlpools of emotion and he abandoned her […]
Seahorses
We ride distorted monsters beyond sandcastle borders, past pebbles and fizzing foam to whispering eel grass meadows. Tethered to stalks, their snaking chameleon tails swish, graceful gliding curlicues, neither horse nor fish. Kim M. Russell, 2017 My response to dVerse Poets Pub Tuesday Poetics: Border, also linked to Imaginary Garden with Real Toads Tuesday Platform […]
By the Graveside
She wrestles with the funeral raven’s shades of black on glossy pinions, her widow’s weeds dulled by summer dust, drenched with sorrow and mistrust of every mourner around the grave of the man whose soul she could not save. Stifled sobs pulse in her throat prise open her lips and, with a croak of feathers […]
The Haunted Inn
On a lonely fell is a coaching inn where the locals stare and sometimes grin, imbibing ale and swigging rum as unsuspecting grockles come. Those who choose to stay the night will wish they hadn’t, with hindsight. Wrapped in sweaty nightclothes’ trammel and listening for the keyhole’s rattle, the naïve and malleable ponder and sigh at […]
The girl who was made of ink and tears…
collected them over the years, spilled and scribbled down her fears on paper full of splashes, smears and smudges, oaths and prayers: a panoply of emotional souvenirs. Kim M. Russell, 2017 My response to Mindlovemisery’s Menagerie Writing Prompt “It’s all in the title” Today’s title prompt involves working with variations of the same title instead […]
Uncomplicated…
as a bubble on a puddle, the minutiae of life inside its dome; as a single pearl on silk, soft hair parted by a comb, a fresh egg or a glass of milk; as blades of grass mingling with a buttercup’s golden glow; as the crisp tingling when the accolade of rain stops – and everything […]
Squirrels and Shadows
Sun flickers in spaces between the breeze- whipped branches and leaves, and dancing curly willows dapple the garden with shadows, Out of his chiaroscuro camouflage, a squirrel dashes to the apple tree to root among the ripened, wind-fall fruit. He hauls his swag just a few feet and stops to eat, relieves the weight and […]
Rejecting Solipsism
In a world so conveniently organised there is no need for charm or chat-up lines, all the young have to do is swipe and rate their lives on the number of likes. For those of us who never went on dates, who fell in love with long-term friends, preferring the safety of familiar faces, dating […]
Clouds Dancing
No curtains open, no music plays, no corps de ballet on the rocky stage. The only spotlight is the sun, to highlight the faint wisps that twist and pirouette drift upwards and beyond: clouds dancing on a blue background. Kim M. Russell, 2017 My response to Sue Vincent’s Daily Echo Thursday photo prompt – Wisp […]
writing in north norfolk 