Don’t believe lies about pigs in muck;today’s pig is not tomorrow’s bacon;and don’t expect me to bring good luck. I love to swim in a cool clear oceanbeneath azure skies and gentle cumuli;most nights I’m tracking stars and planets – I really don’t like to boast about it unduly –I pride myself on my excellent […]
Cyclorama
Nature creates her own panoramicmural on the inner surface of my mind,and I am immersed in a manicexplosion of life in forest, garden, orchard,overflowing with the language of spring.It is no April Fool’s trick.A tunnel of branches,punctuated with lime green buds,leads me into the wonder of Mother Earth,a cyclorama of birth and rebirth. Kim M. […]
From Vienna to Bratislava
My husband and I have been to Vienna numerous times. It’s a home from home. We know our way around, where we like to eat and drink, and the places we love to visit. We had been on a boat trip around the city but not on the main stretch of the Danube – which […]
Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer
She was a woman painted in oilagainst a glittering of gold leaf,one of a number of beautiful,wealthy, bourgeois Viennese.She became sacred and magical,posed on a golden chair, mergingwith the golden geometricalpatterns of her dress, almost fadinginto the canvas, not theatricalbut melancholic and aloof,one could say vulnerableamong triangles, eggs and eyes. Kim M. Russell, 31st March […]
Real Life
I crunch them underfoot,the cockleshells and landslipof pebbles, among saltysparkles and guttural gullsswooping down to steal your chips. I overwhelm you with my scentof decaying seaweedand the thrill of rollercoastercliffs, from cuspate cragto hidden cove. I chase you down the beachtowards the waves,offering everything your sensestell you is honest and true.Now do you believe me? […]
Fresh Etchings
Nature has engraved the woodswith all the signs of spring.She’s left her mark on tiny buds,on blossom and the songbird’s wing.She’s greening trees and hedges,singing as she springs.Nature’s taken drops of sun and signedher name on everything. Kim M. Russell, 24th March 2025 This Monday, I’m hosting over at the dVerse Poets Pub with the […]
Giving Empathy the Boot
In shadows between tall buildings,the homeless huddle, unawareof the oligarchs’ stony stare,of hands that rub together, grinsof greed and lack of careas they survey their monopolyof wealth and goods, give empathythe boot in their quest for piecesin the game, doff top hats in sycophancyas they drive their cars and cruise on liners,wasting resources and killing […]
Lullaby for the Parents of Lost Children
Flashing blue lights pierced the ominous twilight of the alley behind the row of terraced houses, while uniformed police officers combed the fields and the woodland beyond. Friends and neighbours watched from doorsteps and upstairs windows. Later, they joined Theresa’s husband, Mick, and the police in a wider search. For now, Theresa sat at the […]
A Whale’s Lament
I thought that once my shadowed dorsal bentthrough undulations, swimming would be spent;descendants bask in waters far from me.I’m a menopausal hundred-year-old granny. The ocean sparkles glisten off my back,as I pick at barnacles and bladder wrack.I birthed my last calf back when I was thirty –I’m a menopausal hundred-year-old granny. I’m an awkward Orca […]
View from the Bus
We stare through steamy windows on the top deck of the bus,at people walking and waiting in the rain, unlike us,impatient with the crowds and the weather,while we steam in the proximity of bodies crammed together.We open a window to let in some air, and petrichor fills the air,punctuated by a curl of tobacco smoke, […]
