Trudging the path between the yew trees, Those harbingers of death and sorrow, Monks’ bare feet crush the dross of berries, Poisonous, red froth between their toes. Psittacism of holy mantras Below the prickle of green branches Drowns out the twittering of sparrows, The songs of blackbird, thrush and finches. The dull clapper of the […]
Category: Poems
Betrayal
She listened to their words, A choir of hungry birds That pecked at her heart, Pullng it apart To build a nest Within her breast. Emotions hatched, Bright eggs that cracked And split, still-birthed And trodden into earth. Kim M. Russell, 2017 Image found on Pinterest My response to Imaginary Garden with Real Toads Literary […]
Making Tracks
by the tracks locomotive breath made them cry at goodbye she stood at the platform’s edge he was on the train Kim M. Russell, 2017 Tracks My response to Mindlovemisery’s Menagerie Saturday Mix – January 14, 2016 Welcome back to Bastet, who has been thinking about doing a mix day of poetry and one of the various forms […]
Parapraxis
By the meagre spark of a cigarette, The scapegrace’s gang was always well met: Mealy mouthed and nicotine stained, They gathered by night but never by day. Haunting the queasy quarters of the city, The dark back alleys and the not so pretty Gelatinous overspill of late night bars, They dodged dustbins, drunks and stolen […]
Beauty and the Beast
Roads flanked with buildings merge into paths flanked with tombs, a city within a city, where the living and the dead repose in separate rooms. Among manholes and rotting flowers, the eyes of cameras find infinite traces of beauty and sometimes a beast. Kim M. Russell, 2017 My response to Imaginary Garden with Real Toads […]
Demented Texts
Hi Mum! I just wanted to let you know I’ll be visiting you today. Hi Mum! Don’t worry if the words Get muddled up, just text. Hi Mum! I know your fingers can’t type But I need your words – any words. Hi Mum! Did your words go the same way As your memory and […]
A Girl in Every Drugstore
She waited at the drugstore, cradling her Coke float, Staring at the ice – menacing berg or sinking boat? And then, there he was, all uniformed and smart, The type of guy she knew was bound to break her fragile heart, But with his hair greased back, sitting on a shiny stool, He epitomised everything […]
Prehistory in Amber
(found in an Science Alert article on research published in Current Biology) at a jumbled stall on a Myanmar market, among curios, rubies, jade and other gems, an amber trader offered an innocent stone, in which was preserved an ancient dinosaur tail of feathers and bone, frozen in a honey glow, unique specimen of a young coelurosaur, […]
Phoenix Trees
(to be read from the roots up) into a fresh spring breeze. pump pollen and on bare branches wriggle will catkins and new green leaves Soon roots and shoots. branches, slender resilient and stubborn spread storm, by a over bowled toppled, having trunks, Crumbling Kim M. Russell, 2017 Jennifer Vranes – “New Beginnings” My response […]
Chestnuts and Honesty
Lacklustre remains of chestnuts Nestle in messy mats of leaves And wind-dried crackling pods Marked by embryonic seeds. The forest floor’s fluorescent With early morning frost, Strung with brittle gossamer, Slippery with drips and trickles. The world awakes to winter bells: A glockenspiel of icicles. Kim M. Russell, 2017 – Ilmari Nen My response to […]
