She raises the pink peonies, cool,damp leaves and petals a balmto her industrious fingers. Those dual-headed, blowsy globes grasped in her palmexude a fruity wisp of sweetnessthat makes her life much easier to bear.No customers notice the neatnessof her blouse, the pretty headscarf that she wearsto cover the cuts and bruises of her husband’s violence.She […]
Tag: What’s Going On
No Words
There is no such thing as completesilence. Just no spoken words.There is the muffled pad of socked feetacross the kitchen floor; the clock’s ticktock; the soft and loud song of birds;wind in trees and the creak of a branch;the hum of bees and distant traffic;white noise in the middle of the night;the low rumble of […]
April Blossoms
There are few blossoms in the city yet,save a misty cerise-tinged sunset;one can only imagine a hazeof cherry flowers pinking up the sky- line and defining sooty silhouettes. Who am I to criticise a city dwellerwho climbs high enough in the April skyto search far and wide for the distant aromaof trees blooming in the […]
Safety in Numbers
I share my life with numbers,I share my secrets too,and numbers tell me everythingthat I need to know and do. I like to add up numbers,I like to take them away;I’m learning how to multiplyand divide them every day. I can rely on numbers,they can rely on me,but when I’m ready for bed,I much prefer […]
Just Saying
It’s not just a cup of tea,it’s fragrant steamfrom a porcelain bowl,leaves inside blossoming outside. It’s not just a breath of air,it’s hundreds of yearsof leaves and latewood,Earth’s redemption. It’s not just the sea,it’s immeasurable depthsand creatures as mysteriousas aliens somewhere in space. It’s not just poetry,it’s time scrunched into a balland smoothed out again,words […]
Walking with Colours
Today it rained.I didn’t go for a walk,not even with my brightblue umbrella.it was too greyafter yesterday. I did the ironing instead;all the dark washing,nothing orange, pink or red,which didn’t help.But then I got thinkingabout yesterday: my neighbour’s daffodilsnodding bright yellowin short gusts,and the primroses’ pale frills,the thrustof golden crocuses, and the early quince blossomlending […]
It’s Wednesday
and this is what I know:married thirty-one years,living in a place wherebeauty is everywhere,yesterday we drovefor just over an hourpast the salt marsheson the North Norfolk coast. In an ice-blue skylapwings flash wings;skeins of geese fly overheadand a variety of ducks glideacross the briny water below. It’s a landscape of shiveringbird calls, marsh birds pouringover […]
Fye Bridge
In Norwich, where an ancient wooden bridge once stood, another took its place, but it was never rid of its use in the witch trials, and now it is a haunted space. Where Fye bridge crosses the river is a handsome part of the city; the stories it holds would make you shiver from its […]
A Clattering of Sorrows
It began as a muffled splash in a half-flooded field,became chyak-chyak and chattering echoesin the January vacuum,then exploded into black ink,splattering Rohrschach blots against the winter-grey sky:a clattering of sorrows.I counted thirteen jackdaws. By Kim M. Russell, 9th January 2024 Image by Alexei Zaitcev on Unsplash Written on the anniversary of my mother’s death, for […]
Peace Acrostic
Peace can be found in my garden,Except for the occasional tune of a robinAloft in the willow, or the breath of windChilling leafless trees; a reminder thatEven birds and plants need some peace – like me. Kim M, Russell, 29th December 2023 Image by Joseph Watson on Unsplash Susan is hosting What’s Going On? this […]
writing in north norfolk 