Speculative Fiction and Poetry
Fear, Fear not by Russell Hemmell
Fear, Fear not Russell Hemmell Horror stories are not to be feared because they only tell what can be made up not what’s lurking behind the scenes. Be afraid of the legend maker, instead of the dark that lives inside in the places where… 
1348 by Russell Hemmell
1348 Russell Hemmell He arrived on Sunday, after a winter of sleep and snow. A jester with clear blue eyes, pale lithe hands and white flowers in them. He smiled and said, I come in peace. I ply my trade with buffooneries and riddles,…
Love Letters of Old by David Russell
Love Letters of Old David Russell My love was stifled Between the gum and the paper – The sealed envelope was lumpy
Mid-Life by David Russell
Mid-Life David Russell So much happened; So much didn’t – So nice to remember; So painful to recall Now nothing is all, The power to recall Is an anaesthetic – Past strength Is pathetic. In the middle, What’s kept still here What was and…
Communication by David Russell
Communication David Russell He handled his language as he fried his eggs: There was tension between the respective softnesses Of his egg and the cooking fat – Dependent on extreme alternation of heat and cold, Confinement in shell melting out of shape Solid outside…
Work out of Progress by David Russell
Work out of Progress David Russell I suppose it must all go on indefinitely – Just when I thought it had all been played out, All become superfluous. I am at the stage of universal discarding; I suppose that many people see, through several…
Common Sense by David Russell
Common Sense David Russell The sea turns sound to touch The wind blows touch to smell The sun turns sight to touch The grasses smell taste to touch The animals taste smell to see The setting of sets charge to five together Yet there…
Electro-Magnetic Love by David Russell
Electro-Magnetic Love David Russell She said – you are my current, my three-pointed plug Yet I am the wound flex; the wiring behind the walls is mine – When I say ‘Halt!’ go no further; the wiring is dislocated from you The very suggestion…
In Transit by David Russell
In Transit David Russell Unemployed’s tube journey: For those safe, definable few minutes there is the duality Of oneself and the comfort of the seat – the circle; Seal; it chops perfectly, crossing the antilinear. It induces connexity; the most complete awareness of the…
Panic by David Russell
Panic David Russell A search for some trivial object in the midst of disordered furniture Seized upon just at that moment, giving birth to consternation Repulsion from travelling delayed by this selection; Travelling light, splitting energy-wholes into petty onenesses – At one with invisibility…
Early to Rise by David Russell
Early to Rise David Russell In vigour, he did the splits in freedom In free vigour, he did the splits Freely, he did the splits in vigour, With vigour, he did the splits freely Vigorously, he did the free splits – He split vigorously…
Carnival by David Russell
Carnival David Russell That peacock opulence, Swarming on strutting grime; That massed ecstasy, squeezing itself, Short-breathed, near suffocation; That sound-abandonment, seeming to plunge To deafness’s peace; Yet keeping those maimed faculties alive, Ever denying their last fulfilment. Maybe it’s only I and it,…
Computer Virus by David Russell
Computer Virus David Russell Gulleted in spark glint veins Flabbering circuits in floppies Print-out piled high, choking, crimped; Programme busy; not applied; Insufficient memory. Germs swallowed ink; Myopic suction Greek symbol coffee grounds The winking green a vaccine The quantum got under the mouse…
Discourse by David Russell
Discourse David Russell He was the foam on the backwash of conversation, Repelled by the safety-pier; Seeming to crave a knife to answer The upward wave-choppings, He felt as if there were an invisible plastic partition Segmenting the round, globular flatness Of all within…
Disintegration by David Russell
Disintegration David Russell The bottom fell out And all things gathered, Reverted to their origins In skips, on pavements, Fell to casual hands. But at the pit Of all exhaustion, The bottom of grip’s loss Are seeds and roots Of restoration Which in throbbing…
Checkpoint by David Russell
Checkpoint David Russell Lurching, they bluster – ghouls into the chasm. Fierce lava, blowing, nullifies their fall And dissipates harsh gravity’s concussion, Forces a seething screen of phoenix cowardice, Leaping to swell Into a fresh, mendacious crust, Tripping and throttling the led Into…
Scorpion by David Russell
Scorpion David Russell I touched a scorpion; it struck. It was my fault; I had been warned – But for one split second Its beauty-fascination wrenched me From reason’s ice. I don’t think anyone could find a scorpion ugly, They shine too. Writhing and…
With Respect to the Whale by David Russell
With Respect to the Whale David Russell Oh, man – foul carnivore! Gorging beyond all need for sustenance, Gorging beyond even your body’s bounds! And is this a fixation on your prey, A lust for prey-communion? Willing your own, final annihilation By…
Clouds by David Russell
Clouds David Russell In chroniclers’ minds Past wars all went full circle Making great urban filth destroy itself So that the finest flowers and shrubs Could sprout at random. And birds, in exultation Or happy in their ignorance Made rills of melody Now man…
Earthquake by David Russell
Earthquake David Russell What happened? There was a fault. What’s a fault? It’s when one piece of the earth juts above another. Why does that happen? Because the explosion down below Goes on forever. But was that fault anybody’s? It was the earth’s; it’s…
Fast Lane by David Russell
Fast Lane David Russell Let’s get in the fast lane – Rip off the doors and slice the breezes; Let’s get in the fast lane – Thread the highway through a needle. We can loop the date-line In a coral reef-knot; Turn our jet-lag…
Space Capsule Volunteer by David Russell
Space Capsule Volunteer David Russell The final pull of severance will magnify you The downward controls make you equal to the general gravitation You are higher than the air, and so you leave, You are bigger than the air, and so you breathe…
Power Kernels by David Russell
Power Kernels David Russell Break down the elements, split them To non-existence; Then shatter all solidity’s illusions, Free impulses Beyond the viscous mind, still feeling hard By vanity’s gas upholstered. And then, for happiness’s definition, Shut the door; Relax, and don’t be squeamish; For…
Two Blue Stockings Review Podcast
