Star Watcher

After watching the stars all night, she was still out there, in the frozen outdoors, tracking a comet across the sky. It was slow-moving, not as bright as she expected, and then it changed course, heading towards her. The light stopped in mid-air, pulsing a shade of blue she’d never seen before. She thought, “I […]

A Seasonal Relationship

this is the season of the wistful                                                     goodbyeto early morning’s frosty chill                                                      hellosnowdrop, crocus and daffodil                                                      a skyinstead of cloudy grey spills                                                      clear bluewhen the promise of sunshine thrills                                                      anewas winter turns its back on us                                                      againthe pang of regret will pass                                                      amen Kim M. Russell, 10th March 2021 My response to Poets and Storytellers […]

Unmasked

Pandemic masks express littleof the wearer’s personality: floral,funny, plain or heavy metal. We focus on each other’s pupilsor look away, unsure if sparklesare reflections of windowed souls. Words and meanings muffled,cloaked, and sometimes daggered waffleto fill the spaces in between, mumbled emotions captured in dissembledetiquette. And how we long for smiles,rows of teeth, and lips […]

Garrulous and Green

this morning serenadedbirdsong just a gush of liquid notesspilling a stream of consciousnessfilling cracked and solitary heartswhistling an untimely declarationof spring Kim M. Russell, 24th February 2021 My response to Poets and Storytellers United Weekly Scribblings #58: Two Into One Will Go Thank you for featuring Candy’s newly-invented form, Rosemary, which I think you know […]

While winter writes love notes

we hunker down in a world of                                                                            whitenessinstead of flowers, the storm brings ice            […]

Winter pulls its punches

just for a momentin its brutal course that covers all tracesof earth’s life force, icicles come alivewith a sweet green tinge and bloom as snowdropson the edge of spring. Kim M. Russell, 10th February 2021 My response to Poets and Storytellers United Weekly Scribblings #56: Hit Me With Your Best Shot This Wednesday Rommy asks […]

Nell’s Legacy

Rain spits at the closed windowdripping with condensationand I’m listening a play on the radio,following in Nell’s footsteps. The iron steams. Clothes, rescuedfrom the line when the first cloudcracked, are scented with raindrops,creased and pleading to be smooth. Pressing fabric between iron and board,I breathe in warm memories, slipdown the years into a laundry-scented embrace,catch […]

If

there hadn’t been hesitant sleetthat eventually turned to snowheaped like hills on the empty street, it might not have fluttered silently,like luminescent moths outsidethe window, a continued quietude when the flakes ceased gentlyfalling, that might not have been brokenby the boisterous warble of a robin. Kim M. Russell, 27th January 2021 My response to Poets […]

A Blackened Sky

Clouds billowed thunderous greyabove charcoal stalks of heather. Trees held their breath all wind-filled day,browbeaten by the bullying weather. As if by lightning strike, a leafless oakexploded into jet-black blossoming: a magnanimous murder of crowsbroke from the darkness cawing, burst into the blackened sky,their sooty feathers spread and soaring. Kim M. Russell, 13th January 2021 […]