Elizabeth Russell

There’s something inside me at last
For a long time there was nothing
I gaze at the reflection of my baby’s mother in the mirror
She raises her glass, drinks
...

I wasn’t always a drunk
Once I was a child - a little girl
Who wanted love
Which she found - in a bottle
...

“Miracles flourish from tragedy”
I believe it
With all my heart
And soul
...

My little dog
Who has spent her whole life loving us
Is dying
Her heart which has loved so freely
...

Your hand in mine
Makes me feel whole
Encourages me
To continue
...

I remember seeing a photograph of a mother
Holding her daughter -
In a town called Minamata in Japan
Where mercury had been dumped into the water
...

The icy, menacing ocean that once tried to lure me
To seek solace from my pain
In its dark, grey, churning waters
Has now become a thing
...

Eyes bright with tears
Peering down dark depths into my soul
A heart broken by careless comments
Sobs against my breast
...

You’ve seen so much of my boy
Been with him for so long
Wrapped yourself around him
When he was sad, or when he had a hurt
...

Sitting with you on our verandah
Amidst a jungle of ferns, palms
And emotions
Looking out over the tops of red roofed houses
...

The old blue Commodore
Parked casually on the grass in the backyard
The lackluster patina of corrosion
Oozing from every rusty pore
...

He saved my life
Literally and metaphorically
He is my saviour
Big, bearded, brave
...

As a child
I considered the possibility of happiness
To be so alien to me
As to be non existent
...

The child’s eyes reflect the firelight,
Liquid eyes mirror the dancing flames.
She stares trancelike no longer thinking.
The windows of her soul closed
...

Lost, like children in a war
Floating in a universe of directions
With none
Faces that once stirred
...

There are times when the shadow of death
Dilutes living
It waters everything down making life,
Instead of death,
...

I have often wondered
What kind of pain
Could make a person
Choose to give everything away
...

A child, designing castles on a beach,
Digging holes –
Sand streaming out behind her like a rooster tail,
Noisy, excited, breathless,
...

Lives, like speeding cars, rushing past,
Everything I love, falling away,
Like scenery through the window
Into a chasm of half remembered dreams
...

The ocean promises
To wash away the pain
Vowing to free me
From wild thoughts
...