a hot summer’s day sizzling into evening supper on the grill Kim M. Russell, 2nd July 2020 My response to Carpe Diem back on track, a new month, a new theme: Exploring the Beauty of Haiku I am delighted that Chèvrefeuille is back with a new episode of Carpe Diem Haiku Kai. There are a […]
Chalk Marks, Bears and What Lay Beneath
When I was a child the pavementwas a canvas, a joyful defacement:I made colourful chalk marks on the grey,a street artist, until the rain cameand washed them away.Hopscotch boxes led my feetacross the concreteand cracks warned of bearswaiting to eat meif I didn’t stay in the squares.I was curious about what laybeneath the heavy grey;grass […]
Can’t See the Wood
It used to be a rare thing to be lost for words but here I am grasping for synonyms that have slipped down the rabbit hole. I used to write every day but, lately, the air does not move around me. It’s windy outside, the […]
Aghast
The beaches were awash and reeling with sunburnt flesh, already peeling, and tempers flared up in the sun at polite requests to please move on, oblivious to the growing shadow of the Covid reaper. Do they not know the way to measure social distance? After several months of abstinence, entitlement had taken the place of […]
The Wrong Daisies
Will’s mouth gaped. What had just happened? Willa used her wand to stir the drops of potion that remained in the cauldron. Everything was as it should be: she could see tiny pieces of daisy petals, willow bark, nettle leaf and yellow buttercup pollen. She ran to the door to look at the forest of […]
Unexpected
Immersed in a poem, I was a lovelorn mermaid enchanted by vampire squid in fluorescent coral glades. Raised from the deep by the ring of the telephone, I looked out at the garden, dappled green and overgrown. I spotted it suddenly, out of the corner of my eye, the unexpected flash of an electric blue […]
Song Without a Voice
I relinquished my voice for the love of a human, swished my silver-scaled tail in brine one last time and, on the celebratory blast of his siren, he winched me on board like a fish on a line. With mortal feet I walked on gilded splinters, felt grains of sand between my dainty toes, soothed […]
One Shining Moment
One of my shiniest moments was when I played the genie of the lamp in my junior school’s production of Aladdin. I was about ten years old, very shy and lacking confidence, but I loved singing, dancing and acting, the only times when I came out of my shell. My costume was bright and colourful, […]
Sprung from Richest Rain
Early spring ice melts channels in mountains, fields and hills, loosens hardened sods under the metal plough’s thunder. Grey crusts and clods break in the furrows’ crumbling wake, surfed by flocks of gulls and crows pillaging carefully crafted rows. Later in the ripening year, earth fulfils the farmer’s prayer; tender growth greens the plain, rapeseed […]
Daisies Everywhere
The villagers were not surprised when the stone goblin disappeared from beneath the willow tree, or when Will moved in with Willa. What might have bothered them was that he was less than half her size, although his face looked older. Willa was quick to point it out when she released him from the weather […]
writing in north norfolk 