In the ribboned fog of a February daybreak, dog barks stilt strangely in the dank air. Hoar frost clings to raw-fingered branches and to the tortured holly. What leaves are left from autumn’s mulch sit skeleton and crisp, drifted in between tree roots or huddled at the entrances to abandoned setts. Clouds scud over the lightening sky, looking upon their skulking brethren clinging to the dells and corries below. A time for paperboys and farmers, milk floats and commuters huddled bitter at some rural bus stop. The sensible stay put – the foxes in their underground fugues, the hares in frozen, clod-circled forms.
*Thanks for reading, folks. Image courtesy of Libreshot. My recent short stories include ‘Cooks Matches, Lentils, and Sofa Stuffing‘ and ‘Snatched‘.
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, Idle Ink, The Wild Word, 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
The way things are going frozen clods will be a thing of the past
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You’re not wrong Graham. This might feel like a nostalgia piece in a few years!
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Great piece of scene-setting.
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such vivid descriptions, Matthew; I read them aloud a few times over to fondle them in my mouth —
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Thanks John. Thankfully not quite this cold in Scotland today.
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Love the image. Love the write.
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Thanks Goff. Starting to get chilly over here so I thought I’d better reflect it in writing!
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Stormy here. ☁︎🌬⛈⚡️
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I like your stories even better when I read them aloud. This a sure sign of good writing. Thank you, Matthew. As I’ve told you before, you inspire me to be a better writer.
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Thanks so much David. I always carry out the age-old writer advice of read it out loud, and inevitably there’s something that sounds as though it needs fixed!
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Well, you fixed them all beautifully before presenting them here, Matthew. Those clouds and their brethren below definitely have non-cloudlike staying power.
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Lovely prose…
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Thanks Jules. Very kind of you!
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