Mum greeted everyone with a blooming smile,lips frosted pink, applied and blottedbefore leaving our top floor flat. I used to delve into her make-up bag,untwist precious tubes and smearmouth, cheeks and chin with colour. I learned to love carmine caressesof creamy lipstick, blotted with kisses,or left steaming on cups in restaurants. But during this pandemic […]
Tag: Mum
On the Fourth Anniversary of Your Death
Like the sky maps sketchedin the bird brains of the geeseflying overhead this morningin their flocks and vees,your gentle face is etchedinto my genealogy.I hear their honk and chatterloud and clear; they fly byas if it doesn’t matterthat a day cannot be erasedby hoar frost. Yes, it’s here again,sparkling like it did four years ago,stiffening […]
Don’t Fade Away
Yesterday’s pinkstreaks of cloudin the skywere remindersof the driftingin your eyes,the absenceof your spiritthat last visit,the Christmasbefore you died,painful remindersthat I can’t abidethe inevitableebbing tideof your sweet,pink-lipstickedsmile. Kim M. Russell, 30th November 2020 My response to dVerse Poets Pub Quadrille: The Dude Abides Lisa is our host and she says that she ‘tried to […]
Memory of Scent
It comes to me through autumn smoke, the burning of damp leaves, that pricks the eyes and chokes the breath, the funeral pall of summer’s death: a hint of you drifts through the trees, teasing on the goose-bump breeze, the scent of Coty powder on your face, always just a trace of you in me. […]
To be a Child Again
Now that you are gone, I make a wish on every falling star I see (they are few and far between) to travel back in time, have you tuck me up in bed so tight, sing our favourite lullabies and then kiss me goodnight. I want to know that you’ll be there on Christmas morning […]
Fragile
ephemeral puff airy dandelion clock waiting for a breeze Kim M. Russell, 5th July 2018 My response to Carpe Diem #1468 fragile Today’s image to inspire Japanese poetry has the title ‘fragile’. My haiku is dedicated to my mum who would have been 81 today. I chose a different image for Mum.
Winter Thistle
Light as down, you floated a while, gradually fading, your smile a mere flicker. Your papery hands slipped through my fingers. Your breath dropped like wind and I, your thistle seed, caught here in earth’s embrace, watched as winter blasted you out of the atmosphere. Kim M. Russell, 2018 My response to dVerse Poets Pub […]
Mapping Memories
I start to trace the map of her face, the contours of her cheeks, pools of blue eyes, her valleys and her peaks, drawing from distant memories, trying to forget more recent days, colouring the sunshine hours, and feeling her warmth. Kim M. Russell, 2017 My response to dVerse Poets Pub Tuesday Poetics: Musical Muse […]
Fading Photographs
I have an ornate cardboard box, quite large, with lid and metal handle, stuffed to overflowing with tangible memories, crackling paper photographs. I treasure most the black and white that echo with my mother’s laugh, when her eyes were wide and bright, her skin was smooth and her hair was soft, when she could lift […]
Lost for Words
My response to dVerse Poets Pub Haibun Monday #11: Reach Out Five years ago, I could still call Mum on the telephone and have a conversation. She knew my name. Told me she loved me. Shared a joke or two. I’d go down and help out when Dad was in hospital and I’d introduce her to […]
writing in north norfolk 