Spate and Salt | Haiku

Poetry 1 Minute

From fresh to saltwater today in a couple of haiku…

A river rushing over boulders and pebbles.

Spate

Through spate and death-drought,

Boulders rounded, pebbles smoothed –

Cold river-crafted.

Waves crashing against a sea wall.

Salt

Salt murmurations.

Tops and troughs, feeling, pressing,

Weaving sea walls, slow.

Thanks for reading, folks. Second image courtesy of Greg Hartmann. My recent short stories include ‘Bellahouston‘ and ‘Echoes‘.

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 has a Professional Doctorate in Education. Matthew blogs at www.matthewjrichardson.com.

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Published by Matthew J. Richardson

Words in Gold Dust magazine, Literally Stories, Close to the Bone, McStorytellers, Fiction Junkies, Soft Cartel, Whatever Keeps the Lights On, Flashback Fiction, CafeLit, Best Microfiction 2021, Writer’s Egg, Idle Ink, and Shooter.

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11 thoughts on “Spate and Salt | Haiku”

  2. Always enriching, Matthew. I had to look up “spate.” And “murmuration” is an onomotopoeic wonder. Looked that one up too: It refers to the patterns that starlings (and other birds) make as they fly–changing shape. So it’s actually relevant to the elements’ impact in both the above.

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  3. Salt murmurations – This reminds me of working as an aquatic biologist in Thailand back in 96-97. The Thais flood old rice patties with salt water and let the water evaporate. Toward the end of the process air is trapped under crystalline sheets of salt. The weight of the sheet presses down causing air to burp out from small holes. Salt murmurations fits that perfectly.

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