Copper acres turned to tinder below the cloudy bowl gorged with the soundless majesty of cumulonimbus and cumuli. Even the swifts had left the sky, and with them summer; no more shapes like black boomerangs on a breaking-wave horizon. It swelled gradually, a black migraine of a thunderstorm, a tight black bubble fit to burst […]
Tag: Mindlovemisery’s Menagerie
Buoyant in Shadows
Splashed by shadows in the semi-cool of an empty swimming pool and feeling liquid-loose and buoyant from the sun’s electric current, I am floating in glimmers of past divers and swimmers; shouts and screams echo in daydreams of long ago summers at the lido. Kim M. Russell, 24th July 2018 My response to Mindlovemisery’s Menagerie […]
Catalogue of Illusions
She flicks through her central inner catalogue, the one engraved on her heart, and counts shattered illusions, the brevity of lovers, how quickly they depart. Ignoring her staccato cris de coeur, no empathy for a woman like her, those masterful money-makers – when it comes to the bedroom – have no finesse, their lovemaking’s nostrum. […]
Karma
In the machinations of the cosmos, we’re on Earth below and high above us a silver lunar eye and swirling stars. We expect the unexpected, even when we know seasons must come around again in Nature’s karmic puppet show. Comedy or tragedy, she writes the rules in moon-silvered chalk; she sings the songs while we […]
A Salvaged Soul
She took a deep breath, reached beyond life and death, and exhaled her soul, spat it out with a spray of bitter bile. All the while, the devil waited patiently with a silver salver to collect it for eternity. Her empty carapace echoed with gratitude, free of the dead weight of responsibility. Kim M. Russell, […]
Moonface
The sickle moon fell from the sky, having lost its lustre, hurtled through clouds and trees, and hit Earth with a clang – not a bang. It caught a fecund woman’s eye; claiming it before a sister, she got down on her knees and, feeling no disgrace, bound it to her face. That led to […]
Rescued from Mist and Fog
Unearthly shapes drifted like ghosts, crawled from the sea along the coast, crept along ditches, streams and rivers, unravelling with damp clouds of shivers. They entwined their foggy limbs with mine, misting my sight and nibbling my skin, dissolving my bones as they made a start on feet and legs, then up to my heart. […]
First Swallow of Spring
A sleek, high-spirited swallow, shadow plays among low- hanging branches of cedar, a songsmith and a seeder searching for a mate, a good omen cartwheeling as if he’d never left the Norfolk sky. Feet planted in the long grass, here in the garden stand I in a billowing green daze, thinking of warmer days, more […]
Scatter Words
The bend of the pen scatters unthinkable threads on a minatory page. After the thirst of an age of impasse, the erudite runaway bride writes her apologia underneath a poem about social dyslogia. Kim M. Russell, 2018 My response to Mindlovemisery’s Menagerie Wordle #190
Padlocked Hearts
Feet bounce echoes off the iron bridge in a language we don’t understand, unlike the fluent water beneath. We walk hand in hand, gripping tightly, afraid to leave our love behind with all the other padlocked hearts. Kim M. Russell, 2018 My response to Mindlovemisery’s Menagerie Photo Challenge #207 In November 2016, I wrote a […]
writing in north norfolk 