covid-19 became american: classist, capitalist, complacent torturous death cried out beneath a white policeman’s knee one thing follows another sweltering snarls unrest in so many cities the darkness of this time the milk-white palette what comes next? summer has blossomed the certainty of storm grows clouds from the horizon an archangelic season Kim M. Russell, […]
Category: Poems
Be Careful What You Wish For
This year has unravelled like a discarded old sweater. The sound of distant traffic that died weeks ago sounds closer now, and the empty pandemic town has started to regain its orange glow. How long will we see the stars, scattered like salt across the night sky? We must not give in to temptation, take […]
Raven Rain
Ravens sweep the sky, wheeling and tumbling stringless black kites, until the sky weeps with impudent little tikes, whose sooty wings stir up a storm like dust, each curious eye a piercing stud of black diamante, until the clouds break. By afternoon, the earth is damp and green and lush, and somewhere a blackbird in […]
It used to be easier…
when there wasn’t so much to protest about, when war was war and peace was peace, and we saw the effects of nuclear power in newspapers and on the television screen. It was all about humans committing atrocities against other humans and fighting for our rights. Now our sacred Mother Earth is under threat from […]
Message from Your Future Self
You will tear holes in life, portals from one self to another, city to city, country to country. You will adapt your nostrils to different scents and smells, your tongue to sweet and sour. You will adjust your eyes to everchanging landscapes, falling from another sky to land on concrete or grass, sometimes on your […]
Holes
I have torn holes in life, portals from one self to another, city to city, country to country. I have adapted my nostrils to different scents and smells, my tongue to sweet and sour. I have adjusted my eyes to everchanging landscapes, falling from another sky to land on concrete or grass, sometimes on my […]
Kindness in the Time of Corona
In these days of pandemic, I no longer rely on friends or the kindness of strangers. I take my daily walk alone, plodded laps around the football pitch, no cheers or claps, while spectral goalposts lean towards each other longing for the raucous fuss and bother of a game. I stop to admire silver petals, […]
Confession
Around the village green, May blossom turns hedges into rich swags of cream, cow parsley frothing at the edges. As I walk (or trudge) alone, birds and daisies cheer me on, panting through the second lap, by the village hall, past empty goalposts, along sidelines vanishing in rampant grass. When someone asks how I keep […]
Seeds of Doubt
Aurora flamed across the golden acre, begging me to dig and till the soil, plant seeds tender and true, until I felt beholden. Persephone had done her magic, sewn the landscape up with flowers, sprinkled rain among the sunshine, birthed earthly, aerial and aquatic and I knew it must be done. Pots of seedlings were […]
Cosmic Email from the Green Knight
In a corona of silence, I turn to rain showers, the headiness of honeysuckle blossoms and blackbird vespers, simple pleasures to distract me from the unease of disease. So many shadows in the garden in which to find the Grail: the green balm of grass, May flower fertility and earthy pheromones filtering the essence of […]
