I see clearly. I see blossom. I see ripples in leaves. I see movement in trees. I see the definition of petals. I almost see green chlorophyll pulsing through vein and stem. I see the black and white gloss of the handsome magpie by the garden gate. Kim M. Russell, 2nd April 2022 It’s 22nd […]
Mothers
a country girl she had rosy cheeks the legacy of working beneath the open sky a twinkle in her eye she worked her spells growing market vegetables her two daughters running free climbing trees and skinning knees my girl has long since flown the nest and although I know I was not the best mother […]
Quince Essential
I am the ancient symbol of Aphrodite, who nibbled me to perfume her kiss and duly seal her married bliss. I am sexily pear-shaped and aromatic; in spring my robes of pink flowers unfold, while autumn’s scented orbs are gold. I am a pome, a love song or a poem, the original temptation in the […]
Imperatives for an April Morning
Give me heat on this chilly April morning! Find me some signs of spring: blushing apparitions of flowers shining through mist; a lark soaring or even a disconsolate heron will do. Bring me back a wood pigeon’s throaty coo, a twig of yellow catkins, red and blue tulips, and a primrose or two. Gather me […]
Five Answers
i. It is the inhalation of the stalwart scent of decaying seaweed. ii. It is the thrill of rollercoaster cliffs from cuspate crag to hidden cove. iii. It is the underfoot crunch of cockleshells and the landslip of pebbles. iv. It is the salty sparkles v. and the guttural gulls swooping down and stealing chips. […]
Bunty
She wasn’t my dog, the boxer with a coat the colour of fox fur, leaping and shivering with pleasure. She wasn’t even my aunt’s. Away from home, I was only four, with my aunt and her current suitor on a jaunt to the Essex coast for four days. I was just a pawn, a red […]
Newborn
The waiting was breath held under water, the longing a crushing ocean wave, and the scalpel sharp as moonlight. At the end of the darkest day, my daughter smiled pure sunshine, her smell was all I craved, and her eyes were like planets bright. She was the centre of of my universe, she burrowed beneath […]
I Don’t Care
Celebrities, don’t tell me who are these talentless clothes horses, always gurning and vacuous! I really don’t care about Kardashian’s butt or a real housewife of somewhere improving her pout. Why are they given so much media space? I much prefer a natural body and face to the plasticity that appears on our screens, natural […]
Post War Realism
The opening credits roll across a kitchen sink, in black and white, a fifties masterpiece. A nineteen-year-old mother-to-be is pale and oh so young, drying dishes beside her own mother. Her bump isn’t big. But it’s there. The girl inside is anxious to burst into the world. The scene switches to an incubator, a tiny […]
Our garden makes me smile
Every tree is a miracle: the ancient birch with vector branches, silver bark and overgrown elephantine trunk; the curly willow, recently pollarded, younger and more strident; the quince, plum, apple and cherry; the prickly holly, the tree that heralds thunderstorms. In an arrangement of fairy stairwells, sulphur mushrooms rise from networks below the soil, blending […]
writing in north norfolk 