I will drift betweenrooms and their limited viewsfrom book page to screen from sink to counterbottom half in pyjamasand tatty slippers a baggy sweaterwith the sleeves pulled down belowmy frozen fingers radio voicesloud to keep me companythe same old choices keeping tears at bayevery Blursday Kim M. Russell, 2nd December 2020 My response to Poets […]
Tag: Weekly Scribblings
Grandmother’s Radio
Before I left herfor another lifewith parents and sisters,pop music and Radio Luxembourg,she gave me‘Listen with Mother’ storiesand old songs from the music hall. When I returned, feeling unwanted,she ironed while I twiddled the dial,found midday comedies and quizzes,and afternoon playsfor when it rained. I still listen while I iron,smoothing out life’s creases. Kim M. […]
Covid Celebration
hesitation before the grip of winter’s chillalmost all the leaves are goneexposing branches to a cloudless skyand pale light of a more distant sun isolation I watch it from the windowcold glass between me and the worlda video call heralds the promiseof a smiling face celebration a Sunday birthday this yearfour decades of being my […]
A Simple Secret
Ruby waited by the railings, her heart a bobbing balloon inflated with the scent of sizzling onions and candy floss, beating to the fairground music. She had been looking forward to meeting her friends at the fair. There would be no holding back from the big rides. She was going to try them all. Ruby […]
The Solace of the Forest
One year, winter arrived earlyon the back of a northern nanny*,snow-blasting the landscapewith a pillow-fight of ice and flakes. Last spring’s empty nests were flungby the bitter wind, some landingamong corpses of fallen trees,steadfast giants brought to their knees. In the eerie half-light of the forest,frightened animals looked for solaceand found it in a clearing: […]
A Time of Ghosts
In the shadows of change, of life and thought,they anchored the past to their unsettled present.Obligations did not cease with death. Ghosts were obvious and continued to be potentimages of past sins, promises and regrets,seeping from the jet-black trappings, guilt-laden luxury and ornate statuary in graveyard and cemetery.The pleasurable shudder between living and deadhaunted Victorians […]
Prayers of Bone
Beware this Halloweenand the days in between, when knuckles crackbehind the back, of the flesh-eating ghoulthat sips your soul, carves telling stonesfrom finger bones, Our Fathers and Hail Marysstrung on calcified rosaries. Fingers that once folded in prayer,this Halloween beware! Kim M. Russell, 21st October 2020 My response to Poets and Storytellers United Weekly Scribblings […]
The Price
What is the price of gold or silver?Whatever you are prepared to offer,but silver is my choice. What is the price of a stamp?It depends on the weightand the meaning of the words. What is the price of tomorrow?It is everythingand the value of nothing? Kim M. Russell, 14th October 2020 My response to Poets […]
Walking down the front path
The same age as me when I left, no older,you got in a stranger’s car with a new start in sight, a friend’s arm around your shoulder,steering you towards a life of which I was no part. The rear view was blocked, I moved a little closerto stand on the pavement, felt the drop of […]
Sensing October
I pull October from the mist,gather up the weavesafter the storm has tried to stripthe trees of blushing leaves. I wind them round my finger,the delicate wisps that lingerin fallen apples rottinginto cider scent, in dangling corpses of daddy-longlegsand dew-encrusted spider-webswoven in between red sunsetsand orange mornings. I untangle gossamer spanning timeand space to make […]
