I haven’t seen a Campbell’s can for decades, with its boring, old-fashioned label. When I think of all those tomatoes that were crammed inside, I wonder if they‘re out of date, whether they stink, if there’s mould on top, if they have dried out, shrunk, drained of bloody red to anaemic pink spotted with bits […]
Category: Poems
Covid Celebration
hesitation before the grip of winter’s chillalmost all the leaves are goneexposing branches to a cloudless skyand pale light of a more distant sun isolation I watch it from the windowcold glass between me and the worlda video call heralds the promiseof a smiling face celebration a Sunday birthday this yearfour decades of being my […]
Feline
Orbs of honeyed trustglow in the darknessat the end of the bed,incandescent torchessearching in the nightfor human heat.In the morning,after breakfast and a treat,blue-eyed companionrelinquished for the day,the owner of the amber eyesgoes out to hunt and play. Kim M. Russell, 17th November 2020 My response to dVerse Poets Pub Tuesday Poetics: Look into […]
Honest Rot Rondel
After autumn has burnishedfallen leaves and bracken,tufts of fern and verdigristransform the palette. Along mudbanks coatedwith emerald algae,mare’s tails’ spiky greentips release glowing nebulae in stagnant ponds,and licheny flora clingto earth, tree, wall and rock,tiny forests of green lungsall exhaling honest rot. Kim M. Russell, 16th November 2020 My response to earthweal weekly challenge: Keep […]
While we are otherwise engaged
In the solitude of lockdown and the peaceful safety of a village on the Broads, news drips in slowly. If it wasn’t for social media and local TV news, we might forget for a minute that the sea is creeping ever nearer, destroying sea defences, toppling homes from cliffs, and eating up the coast while […]
Redneck Philosophy
No time to think about a bag for life,I leave recycling the rubbish to the wife.Cigarette butts and packets fly out of the car,no time to wash my hands with a beer on the bar.At work, it’s the same if I can’t find a bin,there are cleaners to tidy the areas I work in.I eat […]
On First Encountering a Stallion
In a dust-clouded paddock, a summer stallion,Not midnight black but deepest brown,Rolled one eye, expressive and defiant,Cautiously curious and determined to be dominant.Tendering my trembling fingers, openPalm of one hand in silent supplication,I kept the other in my jacket,Shuffling cubes of sugar in a pocket,Relishing the sweet sting of anticipation.Startled and skittering from a sudden […]
November Monday
Monday is the colour of sky,the first day of the weekas fresh as washing on a line. This November Monday,there’s a musty yellow scent,an ochre aroma of decay, like a pumpkin or a melon,overripe and mushy mellow,not citrus-sharp like lemons. This Monday’s weatheris washed into a muddy green,sun and wind and rain together, mixed up […]
November Burning
Leaf-flame disappears from trees,doused into a sodden massbeneath my boot-clad feet,kicked until the limp leaves liftand fall – again. Drizzle develops into steady rain,but neighbours are intent on rakingand burning. Pungent billowspermeate lank laundryon the washing line. Boots off, safe and dry indoors,the first fire of the season roars,releasing smoky memoriesof the November mornwhen she […]
Greening the Mind
Word-bound, I watch the coming winterhaunt the garden, eager to paint it silver. I count the rags of blue sky overhead,topped with grumbling thunderheads, savour the smell of rich black earth, the gleamof gold and lemon, not quite drowning out the green. Trees drip with limpid air this green-gold morninglike words from my poetic pen, […]
writing in north norfolk 