By a pumpkin field there’s an ancient inn,where the wind blows cold and pumpkins grin, and locals are distracted from their ale and rumto stare whenever strangers come. Those who choose to stay for the nightwill wish they hadn’t, with hindsight. Wrapped in sweaty nightclothes’ trammel,one ear listening for the keyhole’s rattle, the naïve and gullible groan and sighat the chilling look in a landlord’s […]
Tag: dverse Poets Pub
Pigeons
I count a string of them on the power line:one, two, three, four, five pigeons,plump, grey, grumbling curmudgeons,comical and pearly – and with a loudclap of wings they explode,like fireworks that have lost their sparks,and disappear into the dark. Kim M. Russell, 30th September 2024 Image found on 123RF.com This Monday at the dVerse Poets […]
In a Hotel Lobby
She waits, her legs tucked in demurely,an open book in her hands,but she doesn’t see the words; one eyeis on reception, its counterpolished and bee-wax-scented. Surelyhe isn’t late? The couple on the otherside of the late-night hotel lobbylook married; he stands,coat draped over arm while his seated wifetries to catch his eye. And then the […]
Falling into Autumn
There comes a day, betweenspring’s last blackbird concertand the first swift to fly south,when nature takes a breath. Leaves are already yellow,counting days that empty with their falling,their dusty weariness starts to show;tattered, brittle, they know they must go. On a blustery breeze, fragments of sunset fire to trees with a resplendent blushand a sudden […]
Equinox
I look at the garden and surrounding fields, and marvel at the abundance of autumn. A squirrel balances on a fence post, nibbling a piece of windfall apple. Cooing pigeons balance on the overhead electricity wire. I wish had better balance. As I’ve grown older, I’ve lost my centre, bump into things, trip and fall. […]
Harvest Mouse
It weighs as little as a silver coin,a harvest mouse enriched with russet gold,concealed in the tall piles of harvest grass,where once the meadow and the wheat field joined. Its nest is filled with berries it purloined,with autumn nuts, and ears of wheat and chaff.The harvester retrieves it with his hand —it weighs as little […]
Awaiting the End of a Day
I wrap myself in darknessto escape the blindinglight of every day:the cup of early morning tea,the cheerful radio host,and birdsong in the garden,when all I craveis the quiet of the grave. I wait for the end of a daywhen there is no moon,only frosted starsin an otherwise black night,and the quiet flight of batscoming home […]
Vampiric
She savours the salty iron tangof liquid frothing from a newly-punctured vein,revels in claret tributaries flowing,returning again and again.It caresses her vampire lips,down her throat it slips,spooking addicts in the graveyard gloomand lovers entwined by her tomb. Kim M. Russell, 16th September 2024 Image of Geraldine Dvorak, bride of Dracula, from the 1931 film Dracula […]
Catching the Heart off Guard
There was a time whenI knew nothing about life on thecoast: how the shore is buffeted by wind;waves spray salty brine above dunes; andseals follow you, riding thewaves glittering in morning light. Now I know the sound of gulls, they arethe music of the sea, laughing at humans workingon boats. Gulls know the beauty of […]
Stolen
A midwife all my working life, I am haunted by how much our mothers do not know about changelings. The first I encountered was at the start of my career. I was about to leave a blue-eyed new-born in the nursery while her mother slept, when I noticed a shimmer, like wings, out of the […]
writing in north norfolk 