I never wanted a behindlike Kim Kardashian’s,no uninvited fussabout my gluteous maximus.I recently discoveredsuperfluous flesh,and am afraid to go uncoveredor wear a clingy style of dress.I long for autumnand a coat to hide my bum. Kim M. Russell, 24th August 2020 My response to dVerse Poets Pub Quadrille: Shall we bum around a bit? De […]
Rainbow Child
The humid heat had spread like crude oil on a seashore; it prickled and burned skin red, thick and sticky in every pore. A parasol and paddling pool were perfect for the chore of cooling and amusing you: buckets of water, nothing more. Sudden storm clouds above the trees gathered with a growl of thunder, […]
Rewilding a Soul
When she opened the cage, she felt bars beneath her fingers, a metallic chill that lingers and almost stops the heart. Her soul perched on the edge among shadows of danger, liberty felt so much stranger and the landscape was stark. The taming had taken its joyfulness, silenced its song and left it helpless. Its […]
The Leap
I have a poem in this month’s issue of Visual Verse, in which writers have been inspired by an image by Andi Sapey and Other Dance Art. I’m in great company again, with poets such as Misky Braendeholm and Sarah Connor. You can find my poem on page 22 of Visual Verse Volume 7 Chapter […]
Hunger
is a baby bird,a swallowscreaming for dinner,its beak wide open,a black holeready to swallowits mother whole. The raging acid oceangripes and grumbles,piranha enzymes frenziedby the food that tumblesdown the open gullet. But oh, the satisfactionof the elephantine belly,the joy of different flavoursthat coat the tongueand tease the gustatory cortex,a sweet and savoury tangobefore the chemistry […]
Feet to the Stars
You asked for a clean slate, one with your own face on, and a rainbow of colours to brighten up your frown. You tried so many different smiles, noses and eyebrows, a range of wigs and hats, but it wasn’t until you turned upside down, with your hands planted firmly on the ground and your […]
A Pocketful of Time
Their childhood pockets were always full of stuff: fluff-covered sweets, stubs of pencils, rubber bands, and tiny plastic figures from breakfast cereal, their currency to trade and play with on a rainy afternoon. That afternoon, when it is over, said and done, it was a time – and there was never enough of it […]
This Green and Pleasant Land
So many shades of green, with brown and ochre in between, and flowers sewing up the edges with wild brambles and tidy hedges. I often long for higher hills, a mountain would be better still, but this flat landscape stretches wide, and touches an enormous sky on a horizon laced by wind-sculpted trees that dips […]
Smiling in the Sun
Early afternoon sun dapples the half-raised window blind, the part of my desk where the computer mouse sits on its mat, and my cold cranberry tea, ruby red and sparkling. Outside, crimson-berried honeysuckle and wilted orange lilies, wrinkled and raggedy, dance on the breeze, and a butterfly flutters by, tempted by potato plants and courgette […]
In the Frame
On this August day, the breeze ripples green leaves in the quince, plum and willow trees, buffeting an army of tall stinging nettles. Inside the shed, greyed by weather and age, the brambles are uprising, sharp-thorned and striving to escape; they’ve broken a window and are prising the door from its frame. A white plastic […]
writing in north norfolk 