Bursting

Earth has birthed an abundance of fruit:tawny acorn knots rain hard from oak trees;hollies burn brightly with a blood-red flame;magenta spindles split open orange hearts.A young boy kicks spiky shells with his boot,searching for chestnuts in a sea of sunset leaves –it’s conker time, and children play the game,knocking hardened seeds until they burst apart. […]

Mouth Agape

Never worn, just hangingthere,eyeless and mouthagape,an emptiness thatspeaksvolumes of historical festivityand plague,the drunken pox, depravity,appetites and follyof the age. Kim M. Russell, 12th October 2020             My response to earthweal weekly challenge: Earth-Masks Brendan has given us a detailed background to this week’s theme: masks, something we wear now as […]

Grammar of Happiness

I remember you remember me remember when I lost my mind I remember it well making music making bread making money making my way downtown and then what and then the sun rave song and then we danced and then he kissed me poet for our times poet for hire poet for love poet wife […]

Elephant

In a world of watery hues,greens and blues,her vision is binocular,staring at the moon, oblivious to stars. Her worn ears, torn ears, flare,moth-eaten flags as she swaysthrough overhanging leaves,trunk reaching. She grieves. Vibrations of heart and lungsripple wavelike across skin,map of life ingrainedwith wrinkles, rubs and stains. Floundering feet, ancient prints in the dust,track memories […]

Sensing October

I pull October from the mist,gather up the weavesafter the storm has tried to stripthe trees of blushing leaves. I wind them round my finger,the delicate wisps that lingerin fallen apples rottinginto cider scent, in dangling corpses of daddy-longlegsand dew-encrusted spider-webswoven in between red sunsetsand orange mornings. I untangle gossamer spanning timeand space to make […]

Tired But Thankful

You woke me upin the early hourswith your persistenceand your words. Now I’m upbefore the birds,brain whirring,fingers tapping, slave to the emphatic vatic. I’m tired but thankful,but an image would be useful,something ekphrasticto brighten up my dreams. Kim M. Russell, 29th September 2020 My response to dVerse Poets Pub Poetics: The Vatic Voice Lisa is […]