The Loss of Intimacy

She bustles in, weighed down with his clean underwear, pyjamas, barley water and boiled sweets, his reading glasses, now repaired, holding back wisps of her grey hair. She has to catch the bus at the same time every day and sit for hours, making repetitive small-talk with a man who doesn’t know her name, has forgotten, […]

Discovering the White Rabbit

After early showers on a capricious Saturday in May, lunchtime is bathed in balmy sunshine. The shady toll path bustles with strollers and joggers, all inhaling spring’s steamy promise, and echoes with a coxswain’s voice counting rowers’ strokes. On the opposite bank, a swan stretches; alert to danger, she watches over cygnets hidden in a […]

Dancing in the Centre of a Noun

(from Carol Ann Duffy’s ‘Anne Hathaway’) Encircling all my words with his,he caressed them with a gentle touch,slipped them on as if they were ashoe, a glove, a familiar verbhe desired for his own; dancingtogether to a melody inquadruple time, echoing thebeat of hearts, we were the centreof the serious ceremony ofthe allemande: we were […]

Celtic Crow

One eye glances askance, glittering jet lustre. Is Morrighan watching? Will she visit you? Wings open like a broken umbrella, a sheen of funereal feathers. Is it alone or are there three to strike fear in the hearts of the enemy? Talons scratch a morbid beat to the castanet clacking of its beak. Sacred sister […]

Babel

Heated squeaks pierce the twilight – bats again, with their different calls echoing off trees and walls. After the long silence of hibernation, they have found voices to argue, I imagine, about personal space and food. Who wouldn’t, after hanging so close together for the duration of a cold winter? Kim M. Russell, 2017 Image […]

Snow fell…

Snow fell during the night, fresh and bitter, scattering glitter, exhaling biting winds perfumed with winter. This morning we marvelled at icicles and ice flowers on the window and tingled with the chilly thrill of a season all in one day. Kim M. Russell, 2017 Image found on Pinterest My response to dVerse Poets Pub Open […]