Grief perches on my shoulder,as I remember you perchingon the windowsill of life,not ready to spread your wings,still tethered by earthly things. Our goodbye was brutal, no words,just an unbidden memoryof swimming at the local pool,your strong hands buoying me. There are times, left alone with thoughtsand memories, when griefsneaks up, a vulgar thiefof quietude. […]
Tag: Tuesday Poetics
Feeding Horses in the Snow
Snow spilled into her boots, over her socks, freezing her toes. She’d risen late, tricked by the shadowy darkness of snow piled up to the gutter. They would be hungry, stamping on frozen ground, their hooves a hollow sound.They couldn’t graze. Her husband had released them before work; by the time she’d crunched through the […]
Dogwood (a quadrille)
A summer blizzard cloudof feathers from a pillow fight,understated blossom clustersshimmering in sunlight hidehard timber once carved intothe cross on which Christ was crucified.Until its grey bark bursts into red,dogwood crouches in hedges,creeps around woodland edges. Kim M. Russell, 16th July 2024 Alma Thomas, Arboretum Presents White Dogwood, (1972), acrylic on canvas, Smithsonian American Art Museum […]
Nets of Inspiration
I tread water, in time,in my sea of consciousness,adrift in space, untilmy mermaid legs are grippedby cramps. Salt water spillsas I climb a rock to restand set myself the taskof repairing torn netsof inspiration and castthem to the waves.Some days, words slipthrough my head like silverminnows. Other days, I seemto catch a whole ocean. Kim […]
The Known and the Unknown
I don’t play video games. My husband does and, sometimes, I watch, suspended in my space,while he controls the action in his. In Silent Hill, we shared the eerie corridors, the abandoned fairground,the empty streets of a ghost town. We searched with the protagonistfor his missing daughter, avoidedor killed zombies that roamed,and were terrified when […]
A Train Ride Home
I look back on my life,trying to find the splicebetween child and adult,and find iton a train ride home. I’m not long off the Oostende ferry,all set for a week in London;I have a poem half-done,balanced on my knees. From the open window, a sharp breezethreatens to blow it away;I tuck my notebook under my […]
On Opening a Book
earthy musty vanilla redolenceerupts into comforting scentsof paper inky words dreams stories poetry from past agespaper that was born in reamscut neatly into pages book weight in happy handshas a balance of coverand leaves caressed by fingers pristine dog-eared annotated abusedthe satisfying sussurus as they turnand the individual paper colour white yellowed crackling edgescrisp fresh […]
Hippy at Heart
I look back on those carefreedays of the nineteen-seventiesand smell pungent Afghan coats,see maxi skirts and knee-high boots,although I preferred to go barefoot.I loved Indian cheesecloth blouses,bangles, beads and loon trousers,bird-covered and scoop-neckedt-shirts, and velvet Biba rejects,patchouli oil, hats and mood rings,and so many other thingsthat I thought made me differentbut, of course, it was […]
Boxing Clever – a cento
Within my rooted being lies a box of green,lined with dewy moss to quench and revive,clasped onto my sea-shell collection.A self-portrait, the stones I carvedby the sea with salt in its veins,embryonic, in a cosmic womb,its dark edges are still dissolving.Wrapped around a framework of bonesoverflowing with ragtag paraphernaliaof my stumbled tumbled dreams,a hazy recollection […]
I Stood by the Lychgate
I stood by the lychgate of our parish church;confetti drifting across stony graves and crossesreminded me that I had left you in the lurch.In my satin dress, I weighed up gains and losses,but still I could not step inside the porch. The wedding car just left me standing there,my father said he’d washed his hands […]
