After the first step into the New Year

“we write past, present and futurefind possibilities in wordsbut we cannot swim like dolphinsor swoop and dive like birds”               from ‘Being Human’ by Kim M. Russell I couldn’t wait for the end of itafter so much worry and disenchantment,and longed to say goodbye to itall year long. Planets out of alignment,illness took the shine off […]

November Umbrage

Suspicious of a sunny dayas autumn’s glow begins to fade,I resent the early twilight.I doubt the early morning frost,the crunch of leaves the wind has tossed,despise the temperature at night.Although snowflakes give me a chill,their sparkles still give me a thrill,but I fear deep blankets of white. Kim M. Russell, 28th November 2024 Image by […]

On the Wings of a Northern Nanny

It starts with skitter of claw and whirr of wing,a battalion of ragged cormorants wrestling wild,ends with a sudden crunch like bones or antlers. With a sense of being elf-shot – sleet’s sharp sting –we cling together, yet unreconciledwith nature hurling branches, bowling boulders. There’s devastation all along the windinghomeward path, up past the church, […]

Inequality of Weather

The sky-battle’s left a mud-puddle,metal-steeds shower us, and burstriverbanks cause mind-muddleas fields and gardens disappear. On the other side of the world,earth releases a dust-coughand plants drained of life-juicecrumble into earth’s crust-fluff. Meanwhile, we puff and blowat donkey-clouds that will not go. Kim M. Russell, 27th October 2024 Image by Frame Harirak on Unsplash It’s […]

Take Three Words

Drizzly It’s one of those days when the distinctscent of petrichor permeates the day; it sneaks through open windows and leavesan invisible trail like snot on a child’s sleeve, or the track of a single plump raindropas it trickles down the window pane. Wipes As a child, I loved to watch the window cleanerwhen he […]

A Darkling Tableau

Where once grasses buzzedwith jazz of cricketsand loud grasshoppers,cornfields have been razedto stubble, and strawploughed in umber earth. Herons stalk soddenfields, through soggy standsof russet bracken,on towards winter,in ancient rhythm,still pulsing with life. It’s the yawn of time,when the hearth’s tonguesets culture on fire,to glow through the blackdome of night untilthe coming of spring. Winter’s […]

Birthday Bouquet

The birthday bouquetis more than a week oldand wilting in the vase A shapely vase of glasshalf-filled with scummy waterglinting in the sun A mixture of flowersraise heads in a last hurrahof purple and pale yellow Brown-tinged leaves hangover the lip of the vaseover like the birthday Small white rosesstruggle to peek abovethe flaccid foliage […]

All of Me

In a single hourof August moonrise,she steals all of me,lured by her silver glow.Time seems to stand still;I bask in her light show,and the deeper I dive,succumb to her moonbow. I can’t mourn the theftof my inner soul;moon, take all of me,I’ll treasure what is left.I stand in moonlight,baptised, not bereft.Unabashed, I know,I stand naked […]