I’ve stood on streets between tall buildingsand looked at the moonsometimes between their dark shadowssometimes peeking from behind them,and I’ve wonderedif the moon looks the same in Africa,Australia, South America, Japan. I know it looks the samein the villagewhere I live,but thereit sits in skywith nothing tallerthan a treeto play peekaboowith me. Kim M. Russell, […]
Tag: Tuesday Poetics
Irreverence
Black shadows hoverby the roadside,eyeing up carrionas traffic thunders by. The splatted carcassof a young deer,unused to passing vehicles,is a temptation, an invitationto peck at exposed innards,a banquet for carnivorous birds,a murder of cackling crows. Kim M. Russell, 27th October 2026 This Tuesday at the dVerse Poets Pub, our host for Poetics is Punam, with […]
Rain Woman
Why do you follow me,grasp my hand, pulling constantlytowards a perpetual downpour? I don’t want to drown with you and yourblack felt hat, from which rain spillsin dank cataracts or rills. How does it feel to never dry?Although your fish-eyesare closed, I feel your stare. Slippery as an eel,you swim nightmarishly throughmy restless sleep. I […]
I Put a Spell on You
Time has wound down to a stop—just like your heart, no ticking clock.Lightbulbs flicker,the air vibrates,becomes viscous,until you cannot breatheand heat burns scarlet on your face.Outside on the street, life is a race,while inside, everything has s l o w e dright down.Thoughts buzz frantically, like a beeand you’re trapped in amber honey. I put […]
Mother’s Love
My mother’s love is red and gold,the vibrant love of sunset,a kiss before I bid the worldgoodnight. Under the silhouetted tree,the sky the colour of her heart,holding me close, she says to me,“Sleep tight!” Kim M. Russell, 6th October 2026 It’s Tuesday and, at the dVerse Poets Pub, our host for Poetics is Lillian, with […]
Boar Lane by Lamplight
The evening has already drawnacross the town moon-silvered cloudslike a sky-filled eiderdown.Boar Lane is coming to life, crowdstread cobbles that seemto hold on to sunset with the lightstreaming from windows. Like a dream,gas lamps, candles and lanterns brightentice carousers and romancersinto the pubs to escape the long haulof the working day, while dancersand singers are […]
Hallowed
The silence of the woods is contagioussap seeping under our skin. Outrageousstrings in minor key rise in a sorrowfulbreaking prayer in an arboreal cathedral. No birds sing in bare branches, gunmetal laceagainst an ashen sky; no clouds to embracethe unabashed nakedness in this hallowedplace that nature reigns, we’ve only borrowed. A doe and her faun […]
Remembering Miss Spencer
My favourite lesson was English,but as far as teachers were concerned,telling tales of yore with relish,only Miss Spencer could bring history to life. She had taught my mother, was rotund with a kindly face, older,always dressed in black,with amber beads around her neck. Daughter of an Egyptologist,she’d visited the pyramidsand witnessed the opening of tombs;she […]
Houses with Laundry
In the suburbs, the sky is muted greys;layered clouds merge with beigepost-harvest fields – a train passes by.Houses are prominent, earthy, weak lightreflecting in windows, the inhabitants’washing strung out on lines like brightbunting criss-crossing the landscape.This is life outside the city, awayfrom Viennese high society, an escapefrom pressures and scandal. The dayis almost over, laundry dances […]
August
Once in a lifetime,maybe twice, but no more,you realise that you are turningfrom growing to giving back:ripening. The fruit, grain and light know.Your body knows from the settlingin your chest — a quiet pause,in which you’re not quite readyto let go. Everything ripens:wheat, corn, apple, tomato,sunflower. Even a poem. Kim M. Russell, 18th August 2026 […]
