Only the cut-glass wind and a cloud-wreathed Christmas Eve moon trouble the dark surface of the Clyde.
In the wee hours, river-cold coils around the destitute, their blankets threadbare and their cardboard ragged. They look northwards not for St. Nicholas but for the Campsies, black against the breaking dawn.
*Thanks for reading, folks. Image courtesy of Wikipedia. Visit Shelter if you can donate anything this Christmas. Recent stories of mine include ‘Something Borrowed, Something New‘ and ‘Alder, Beech, Hawthorn, and Hazel‘.
Matthew Richardson is a writer of short stories. His work has featured in Gold Dust magazine, Literally Stories, Close to the Bone, McStorytellers, Penny Shorts, Soft Cartel, Whatever Keeps the Lights On, Flashback Fiction, Cafelit, Best MicroFiction 2021, Writer’s Egg, and Shooter magazine. He is a doctoral student at the University of Dundee, a lucky husband, and a proud father. He blogs at www.matthewjrichardson.com and tweets at https://twitter.com/mjrichardso0
Matthew Richardson 
This is an excellent story and a much needed reminder, Matthew. Thanks.
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Thanks David. Very much appreciated! Happy Christmas to you and yours.
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Great work.
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Thanks Margaret. Very much appreciated!
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I am honored to read through this post today. Your background is phenomenal! Plus, before diving into your short read, I fell in love with the website design. I feel mine is far from over, but it’s relaxing to sit down and spend time reading great literary works like yours (and many others of course).
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You are far too generous. Many, many thanks!
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My pleasure. I try to strive to write like this each day. My style is different, but this style I’ve always admired since I was 5 years old.
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You’ve woven so much imagery into these brief paragraphs, Matthew. Deeply moving.
If your other responsibilities leave you little time, I, for one, can manage for a while admiring fine social portraits such as this one.
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Thanks so much Annie. Happy Christmas to you and yours when it comes!
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Those few beautifully written lines convey so much, Matthew. A stark reminder of those unfortunate people who have so little, when many of us have so much.
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Thanks Chris. It was the first time I’d tried the 50 word structure and I found it really enjoyable trying to get some sort of narrative arc within those few words.
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An interesting challenge to which you rose exceptionally well I’d say, Matthew.
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