Hunched against twilight, unfurling brambles and briars arch with witch’s spite, wiry black liars that prickle and grasp. Night noises regale with twisted tales of thorns, the cost is just a drop of berry red blood to satisfy suckering roots. All is not lost. Kim M. Russell, 27th July 2020 My response to dVerse Poets […]
Tag: dverse Poets Pub
Spinning
that feeling of childhood revolution with both arms outstretched and the whole world condensed into horizontal lines of a spinning top when you dare yourself to look up at a sky that’s about to pop think you’ll never stop and then you drop onto a grassy spot you roll over among daisies and the world […]
Luna and the Blood Moon
Luna was hunting. She had left the house before twilight and was waiting for her namesake to give her a sign. She had already feasted on a vole and a field mouse. Magic was in the air. Grandmother’s grimoire had promised freedom from her feline form. The words were indelibly burnt in her memory: When […]
Bird-scribbled
‘A little bit of bread and no cheese,’ the scribble larks* beg – I know, they feast on bugs and seeds – the notes of their familiar song fall like rain from the sky. At my feet, another message scribbled in the intricate patterns on an empty egg, a warning of their demise through dearth […]
I am the Blue of my Mother’s Eyes
I am the songs that my mother sang to me the dust of Coty powder on her nose, cheek and chin the peach lipstick imprints on the paper hankie that she threw with panache into the nearest waste bin I am the softness of my mother’s favourite sweater the way her chiffon scarf wafted in […]
That Look
I sat among the guests on bales of prickly straw, the afternoon sun hot on heads and backs, the expanse of Tuscan sky a perfect blue. And so, daughter, were you, perfect in your wedding dress, in your hands a pastel bouquet and single flower in your hair. I admit, I shed a tear, feeling […]
Blueprint for a Summer Afternoon
We sat cross-legged on short grass that left a prickly itch on bare skin. Summer stretched out, […]
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 […]
