Nothing Short of Dismal

Everything is packed up ready to leave for the last time on a dark and dismal February day as the spring tide roars on the other side of the dunes waiting to devour the coast the fields the villages drown the towns and rampage in the cities and you say “Let’s go to the pub […]

Black Tulips

Glossy goblets in the florist’s shop, rare tulips, brimming with power and strength, constrained like Rilke’s panther, stained with the ink of witching hours. Oh, for a pot of midnight flowers, scented with soil, not a bouquet of beauties with stems cut and wilting in their pain, but petals of black velvet that bloom again […]

Start the Week Day

I loved childhood Mondays, those start-the-week days, back-to-school days of stories, songs and poetry. They smelled of pencils, paint and ink, clean uniforms, faded dinner stink, disinfectant and freshly waxed floors. We sat in rows, our desks clear, blackboard clean, blank slates waiting for the teacher to write the date. Kim M. Russell, 4th February […]

This Dream

This dream is a moon-faced owl shining brightly in a silver tree, its amber orbs cups of honey that drip sweetly in a sleeper’s eye. This dream is a rasping call that echoes through windy branches, the spiky tip of a nightmare’s tail brushing against a windowpane illuminated with star-fall – before it flicks and […]

Wild Fruit

In the garden centre nursery, young raspberry plants long to break free from pots, and run wild in soil: sharpen up their thorns, let their pale green leaves unfurl and plump up ruby globes fit to burst sweetly on our tongues – to be sprung! Kim M. Russell, 27th January 2020 My poem for dVerse […]