In the days of physical elasticity,instant sparks of electricityand youthful hunger,whether in daylight, twilight or moonlight,lips and teeth tended to tattoo and collide on the soft skin of the underside. Now I love to tangle in the copper hairon forearms, chest and belly, wherewinter frost has started to appear,but it is on the soft skin […]
Tag: dverse Poets Pub
A Hike in the Moselle Valley
When I was about nineteen and living in Cologne, after repeated ferocious tonsillitis my tonsils were finally removed. A hike in the Moselle Valley had been planned by some male friends of mine and they insisted I come along, post-operative or not. It was late autumn, frosty and cold. The ancient hotel we were staying […]
Lazarus
Mynamecrumblesfrom my mouth,a piece of coral. You might think I’m smiling but it’s rictus –I’m as terrified of youas you are of me. If you could seeinto my spine,you’d find it’s hollow,encased in an armoury of external teeth –all the better to eat – and my eyes are even bigger than my mouth –all the […]
Quadrilling a New Day
Yesterday was libraried, catalogued and fairystoried, night had diamonded while we were still in bed. Buttercupped beyond the shed, new morning mangoed into being, the dormoused sun almost refusing to shine and cupcake in the sky – and another new day began to dragonfly. Kim M. Russell, 27th August 2020 My response to dVerse Poets […]
Wheatfield with Crows
His paint oozed solitude and sadness. The turbulent brush almost fell from his hands. He knew it so well, this field of rude life and death, its diverging blood-rusted paths leading to the same horizon. The violent polarity of yellow field of wheat daubed in rows and blue sky smudged with clouds erupts with black […]
This Summer is a Bummer
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 […]
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 […]