They took away my suitcase. There wasn’t much in it: a book to read, clean underwear, a nice dress for visiting hours (no one ever comes) and church on Sundays, moisturising cream for my hands and face. I didn’t think I’d be here long. Now I need to fill it with the weight of nightmare […]
Tag: NaPoWriMo
Tesselated
honeycomb hexagons too narrow for fingers but just right for bees conjuring honey from pollen tidy and tessellated sticky-sweet Kim M. Russell, 24th April 2020 My response to Imaginary Garden with Real Toads NaPoWriMo Day 24 Play it Again in April 2020: Wild Woman’s Natural Wonders On Wednesday 24th April, 2019, Sherry inspired us with […]
Shakespeare’s Women
If I were to save a piece of Will, from all the pleasure he has given me, I’d need the wit of Beatrice to sway my choice and the cunning of the Nurse to keep it to myself: the women who populate his plays, living on today in modern Mirandas and Violets, Ophelias, Lady Macbeths, […]
Hitchhikers on the Wind
It starts with an ephemeral puff of delicate seed-heads in a child’s hand, waiting for the wind, hitchhikers free to take sunshine wherever they land. A dandelion may start life as a fragile seed, a tickle in a downy clock a drifter on a breeze, but it can crumble paving stones and rock and, before […]
Daphne
Free to flow in fountains, wells and streams, I was not one to flaunt my naiad beauty, and was bound to Peneus by daughterly duty. I loved to swim and dive, I felt alive in water, still or flowing, crystal clear as my virginity, innocent to the onslaught of male potency. But gods are gods […]
Unravelled
April has unravelled like a favourite old cardigan. The sound of distant traffic died weeks ago, and the empty town has lost its orange glow. We can see all the stars now, scattered like salt across the night sky. When did we take our eyes off heaven? Is this white noise a wish come true? […]
The Beckoning
Along the fields and lanes, sloe and blackthorn hedges are humming with bees. Beneath the trees and along the edges, bluebells cast a heady scent into a wistful April breeze that teases the branches of overdressed trees, spilling pollen, a sugary omen of fruitfulness. In morning’s flickering light and shadow, crocuses beckon with purple and […]
Smiling Through Tears
How many stations are left on this journey? How can we ever know? We smile at each other with tears in our eyes, how do we stem the flow? Don’t worry about how long it takes, relax and enjoy the view. Keep smiling through tears, just let them go and I’ll wipe them away for […]
Nature Haiku to Ease the Pain
errant porpoises trapped inside the harbour wall the sun’s a beachball call of the harbour nets strung between the boatsheds sparkling with sea salt avalanche of fish tumbling down the harbour wall no more plastic bags Kim M. Russell, 17th April 2020 My response to Imaginary Garden with Real Toads NaPoWriMo Day 17 Play it […]
Only Our Last Conversation Remains
Years mutate virus-like in their determination and, before we know it, only our last conversation remains, hanging in the air like a note from a bass guitar that we know must end. We each had our perspectives, memories and photographs the only proof of friendship, all that’s left of us, my friend. That’s why I […]
writing in north norfolk 