Morning Shivers

Winter’s at its lowest ebb, with branches bare against low skies and frost crisp at the river’s edge. Dawn carves grooves into the ice formed on the garden pond, where grass seeds are petrified into brittle frozen fronds. Early morning has been captured in a sparkling silver sculpture. Kim M. Russell, 2017 My response to […]

Tapping

Stubborn leaves bristle branches in a whickering wind; frost has finished off apples in the grass – it’s cold enough to light a fire. From the heart of steely winter silence, something hard taps on glass. I check windows, see only winter sky where black bones of twigs scrape at emptiness. Kneeling on the floor […]

Seven Days

I live in dark corners, a scuttling spider drawing you to my web. Ding dong dell, Pussy’s in the well, drowning in despair and dripping hair. The jerky gait on the video tape is a symptom of my pain, reflected in the depths of eyes that kill or drive you insane Kim M. Russell, 2017 […]

Slipping

The circus is over; curses escape rouged lips, the mask slips, dripping with clay lumpen and grey. Clown hands squeeze, poking dreams filled with screams trapped in a false face – a frozen grimace. Kim M. Russell, 2016 My response to dVerse Poets Pub Tuesday Poetics: The Metaphorical Mask, also linked to earthweal open link […]

Leaving the Library

Inside the library, readers are turning leaves, devouring stories and stuffing words up sleeves to ponder at their leisure, while some are just hiding from the autumn weather. Outside the library and just inside the door, brittle leaves skitter in huffs of dust across the floor, cart-wheeling freely, while some are just hiding from the […]