annerussellwest

Author: Anne Russell West

  • 1/14/2026 I leave him ajar

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    Anne Russell West
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    I use a teacup from the thrift store for watercolor painting. I was originally going to break it with a hammer and use the shards to make a necklace, but that never happened, so now it’s my watercolor cup. I told you about the watercolor cup once, and, unless I was mistaken, you found it…

  • 1/12/2026 Sequence #10

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    Anne Russell West
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    I remember the last night I knew anything about you. We were playing chess, and I was lost in whatever horrible, overcomplicated plan I had plotted out in my head. I think I had just lost my rook when you looked up to me and asked, as though it were just another move, “Would you…

  • 1/12/2026 Like I Do

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    Anne Russell West
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    A bladder with desireThe next step over the canyonEverything that seems too greatIn the middle of the nightIn the middle of the dayWhen all is said and goneAs my comb pulls through my hairWhen I fluff the pillowThough my parents miss meIt’s the end of the worldDo you do it for me like I do…?

  • 1/09/2026 lights in the sky

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    Anne Russell West
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    Flowers blooming under my hands. Your face is blurred through the way you think of me. You were always a sea, by the way I came too late. Sometimes I feel dizzy and lied to. Sometimes you feel lied to. If we are deceived again, I just won’t be able to believe it. The slit…

  • 1/09/2026 Grind

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    Anne Russell West
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    Is there no noise here?The setting moon doesn’t whisper to me,But I feel the wind’s only tear.The shutter of a camera’s eye feels too near,Though I know it wouldn’t listen to my plea.Is there no noise here?The roots’ climbing stills, stopping in my ear.I itch and smile with glee,But I feel the wind’s only tear.I…

  • 1/08/2026 The Morning After

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    Anne Russell West
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    The rising sun reminds me of heart-rot, and as the dawn breaks, so do my mold-filmed eyes. I can feel the bed beneath my back collapsing, and, as I sink, I am reminded of how everything else was beautiful. Could I ever have been free?

  • 1/08/2026 Cages (Ballade)

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    Anne Russell West
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    A neck of coilLips made of leavesSkin covered in oilFur on her sleevesA heart that grievesA coffee-stained moonWork works as a bunch of thievesNow her skin, wrinkled as a prune.Misshapen eyes in the sun broilAnd paper skin just now receivesThe ink from the fruits of our toilAnd in her last breath, she heavesAll these things…

  • 9/1/2025 Road Trip

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    Anne Russell West
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    The grass has been shaved to stubbleand the sky’s clipped capillaries drip white candyWhen all is said and done, the stop signs screech goMy skin is hot like smoldering asphalt and my heart is full of your last spoken wordsMy dad is sleeping because he is so sad More works

  • 8/26/2025 WANING

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    Anne Russell West
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    My body is not waningFrom my fingers to my arms to my face, I see myself as clearly as I ever haveMy knees do not buckle beneath my draining corpseI do not trembleI wanted a better lifeAllow me to stay moments longerWhy do you sweep me away like the tide?Like I am from a nightmareLike…

  • 8/26/2025 elegy for a snake

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    Anne Russell West
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    The field sat at an angle with the skyThe mountains eating a chipYou were focused more than I’d ever seen youI saw you throw your shoe at a snake in the yardIt hit the dirt and the snake slithered away- “It’s a snake with bad intentions, it may hurt the dog.”Is every corner now your…

  • 8/25/25 There are many ways to be physically distorted.

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    Anne Russell West
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    Based on the following: Robinson, D.L. (2009). “Brain function, mental experience, and personality.” The Netherlands Journal of Psychology. pp 152-167 . Related to object properties: Stomach and an overconsumption You’re flipping through a bible. In one second, dozens of pages turn, pushing your hair out of your face with the force. For each page that…

  • 8/23/2025 Attrition (Shakespearean Sonnet)

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    Anne Russell West
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    Maybe one day acids will stop pouring And through the clarity, I’ll see your face Eyes dulled by resin, your head’s faint morphing It is all I can do, granting you grace . The flash flood has carried you far away Without response, softly you fall backward Your mind sits dead and can’t lead you…

  • 8/05/24 Butter Fly

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    Anne Russell West
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    as caterpillars munch at the porch broom and maggots devour the trash your face visibly shadows. beetles eye you through rent sockets. in their ruptured gazes, they find nothing you could have done to deserve this. what you then desired has no bearing, and what you wish for now never did when the children and…

  • 8/31/2024 Epoch of Letdown

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    Anne Russell West
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    The odor of clogs Howling ache Birds and trees will follow me outside . The smells of a chicken’s past Creaking shadow Air’s blood in my eyes . A dead goat skitters up a stone wall, and unpicked tomatoes haven’t yet turned mushy Here my love lies in consignment. When I pick it up, it…

  • 8/22/2025 MegaloMania

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    Anne Russell West
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    . Reign the world you bane of our existence a shadow lain in entropy does the sky ever wane? brain shot terror you bullet of fear yank my chain my ligaments strain no, I can’t feign the weight of your reckoning . We’ve slain the compound that falls near the tree the sprain of choice…

  • 7/23/2025ATMOSPHERICS

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    Anne Russell West
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    I imagine I am the only one I think I am the only one The sounds bang upon my skin I think they’re banging on my skin My brain shakes and shivers in its coffin; my eyes are full of dirt Can’t you hear it? A machine is falling from the sky The movements of…

  • 8/20/2025reversed-physiognomy

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    Anne Russell West
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    Raindrops fall directly into your eyes. I hold a beating heart. Wind crashes against your skin; you stagger like a newborn animal. The sun crouches in your hair. My intestines are tangled with yours. Splinters enter the undersides of your toenails. Blood spurts rhythmically, and I want to dance. Everything is outside of you. Everything…

  • 7/24/2025 angel

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    Anne Russell West
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    I fly in the sky for all the world to see. My vision is that of an angel’s. I fly in the sky for all the world to see. If you met me yesterday, you’d never see me again. The weight of my heart will send me to heaven. I fly in the sky for…

  • 12/25/2024 holiday

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    Anne Russell West
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    Looking around, I see the corners of their eyes carrying a weight. My face seems to droop. A day carries hope and expectations of the past. Time has become proved too long ago. . Incompatibility. All pass away with a sniff. My body now moves on its own accord. . Discussion of food sifts through…

  • 8/23/2024 the symptom

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    Anne Russell West
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    The twister in the field floated to the house all the frames dented and I could see the demented look in our mother’s eye the water melted and the doorknobs cracked our spines twist with newfound vigor . Hair whipping an ellipse on your face, your laughs are chokes of melancholy is every tree I…

  • 7/06/2024 clammy hands

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    Anne Russell West
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    My hands clam up when I see a clock Standing there, you exist far more than any person should For all that’s happened, I still can’t remember why you’re here Every day I fend off control If you turn your headlights on now, I’m sure someone will die My sternum threatens to pierce my innards…

  • 7/05/2025marriage-on-TV

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    Anne Russell West
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    Tomorrow, when you find me, you will not be aware of how my feet dragged along linoleum and tripped across wood. As you slit a pidgeon’s throat, you won’t know how mine died there, too. And when the mirror shard drives up your foot and you cry out, you may think the same thing happened…

  • 7/31/2024FLIP-BACKWARD

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    Anne Russell West
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    Yesterday I saw you staring at the mirrors in the road. I’m not sure you knew what you were looking at. Tonight, going by your gaze, I could toss you into space and you’d breathe. You’d look at me and laugh, and I’d know you were wishing for a brushed tongue. When her eyeshadow palette…