I have never known complete silence. Just pin pricks in the backdrop of white noise, where darkness seeps into quiet moments. Memories rain into my never empty mind, daydreams creep up and worry at my imagination like dogs with bones, persistent ringing of the telephone, or the doorbell. Traffic passes, […]
Tag: dverse Poets Pub
Libertango
Arriving at the Gare du Nord, I disembark from the train to a guttural dawn chorus – I’ve heard that sound before. The morning platform’s cold, tinged with piss and alcohol. As I pass a street café, a newspaper hawker’s cry starts up the day and Gitanes and coffee grab me in a piquant embrace, […]
Scrooged
I struggle with leftovers and dregs of good cheer; dinner repeats itself and Christmas tinnitus continues to ring in my ear. Although I vaguely remember many times that I’ve been here, I know that I will make the leap of faith into another year. Kim M. Russell, 2018 My response to dVerse Poets Pub Quadrille: […]
The Sweetness of a Pear
Pale yellow-green tears pool in the fruit bowl. I choose one with a blush, hoping its shyness foretells flavour. Under a running tap, my pear gleams and drips. I use a tea towel to dab away its fears, buff the delicate skin, inhale its honey breath. I bare my teeth, sink them into gritty flesh, […]
Morning Shivers
Winter’s at its lowest ebb, with branches bare against low skies and frost crisp at the river’s edge. Dawn carves grooves into the ice formed on the garden pond, where grass seeds are petrified into brittle frozen fronds. Early morning has been captured in a sparkling silver sculpture. Kim M. Russell, 2017 My response to […]
Remembrance
I haven’t been out in the garden much since early autumn and recently I was too ill to even think about it. On Tuesday I gazed out at the last flakes of rusting leaves and a leaden sky. I watched Luna, our black and white cat, meld into the shadows; marvelled at the gold and […]
Giant Shoes
Bits of twig and uprooted willows tangle in hollow bank-side shadows haunted by a mist of winter gnats. Hoar frost sparkles on the slats of rowing boats and canoes, abandoned like a giant’s shoes, the kind you find at the side of a road, dumped without its pair. Bubbles implode in the eddy of a […]
Tapping
Stubborn leaves bristle branches in a whickering wind; frost has finished off apples in the grass – it’s cold enough to light a fire. From the heart of steely winter silence, something hard taps on glass. I check windows, see only winter sky where black bones of twigs scrape at emptiness. Kneeling on the floor […]
Crunch Time
It’s that time again: after the crunch of autumn leaves we face the bite of ice and snow on the bank of the frozen river at the edge of the year. We look across at the future and wonder where we go from here. Kim M. Russell, 2017 My response to dVerse Poets Pub Quadrille: […]
Mirror Magic
The mirror in the garden pond is cracked with rushes, irises, rotting leaves and watercress; a single poppy lingers on, pale petals promise oblivion. In the mirror of the garden spade, a toad with its glittering topaz gaze, legs akimbo and puffed up body dangles from the shiny blade, toxin flooding warty membrane. Mirror, mirror […]
writing in north norfolk 