She taught me the art of patience,guiding awkward childish fingersto draw a loop around a needle,keep going until too-tight, sweat-soaked woolbecame a square. Knit was the basic stitch, purl soon followed,we explored more complicated structuresmore colourful and designs until, together,we conjured up a rainbowfrom cheap or unravelled yarnthat itched. Later, at parties, that knitterin the […]
Tag: dverse Poets Pub
Unaltered State
A stone is a stone.it’s reached its final form,it’s shrunk, it hasn’t grownor gathered any moss, as long as it keeps rolling down an incline of some sort, unaltered, hard, solid, limestone, sandstone, marble, granite, a part of the Earth’s crust.Kim M. Russell, 21st April 2025 It’s Quadrille Monday at the dVerse Poets Pub, with […]
Diamond
He was wealthy, with a reputationfor breaking hearts and violencein his quest for love, not infatuation,an elusive gem in a mine of loneliness. Diamonds are darkling magnetsfor women of a certain kind;they attract gossip and rumour,but this kingpin didn’t seem to mind. He pulled each giggling, mindlessdebutante in a whirl of tipsy parties,always on the […]
Children of the Brambles
Thorny limbs snatch at naked skinon the twilit forest path; glancingright and left, we seek knots of berries,black and shiny as jet, followingbrimstone and comma butterfliesthat drift like graceful ballet dancersarrayed in spectacular sunset hues. We dodge wasps weaving among spursand landing on fruit that bursts with juice;pick flies and spiders from the clusters,brush cobwebs […]
Clair de Lune
On a bright summer’s day in Cologne,the leaves infused with rays of sunlighton a tree-lined street, and quite alone,I was delighted to hear moonlighttumbling from the strings of a guitar.I lingered by an open window, listeningto blue notes above the hum of cars,caught in a dream, like glimpsinga crescent moon through cloud.I leaned against the […]
no longer drifting
sculpted by salty waves and sandthe driftwood was almost out of reachon the dunes above the beachthrown high in a stormit had once been part of a living treetorn from itsrootsand manufactured into something practicallike a boat or a tableby the time it reached the shoreit was unrecognisabletwisted by the artifice of the ocean into […]
Scatterbrain
Mother calls me a scatterbrain and a daydreamer. She doesn’t understand how it feels to be me, wanting to fly on the wind with shimmering wings when I’m tethered to house and garden. I have so many chores, I don’t have time to read or finish writing the story Miss Thomas set for homework, about […]
On the Norfolk Broads
It’s never silent among the reedsand water lilies: inquisitive swans gliding in a boat’s wake hissand honk; there’s the bittern’s boom, an otter’s splash, and a breezewhistles through overhanging leaves. Passing boats rumble, blast their hornsby the bridge, the tide slaps at moored-up craft rockingand swaying in the moorings. But at sundown, everything is quietin […]
The Crone Can’t Spell Anymore
As a linguist and English teacher,and even before, as a learner,I never had problems spellingor remembering the meaningof…things. Entering my seventieth year,signs of ageing have appeared.I have begun to trip and stumble,words no longer tumblefrom my fingers. My handwriting’s scribble,as if a dyslexic spider resides in my pen.What I type isn’t what I see on […]
Word Magic
What is this enchantment of wordsthat soar like birdsor hop from branch to branch?They are at their bestwhen they form their murmurationsand make morning declarations,feather fluttering,quietly mutteringon the wings of flight:a gift of magical inspiration. Kim M. Russell, 7th April 2025 This Monday we are writing quadrilles at the dVerse Poets Pub, and De is […]
