Below,

Water-worn

Dry stone bones,

Loose in rheumy mud gums.

A shepherd’s shieling, uncovered

By humming sun

And streams-stopped-running.

Earthbound pottery ossicles

Litter a river-licked,

Slick loch bottom,

Flanked by Ochil hills

And the bulking hulk

Of Upper Glendevon Dam.

Above,

Bruised cumuli hang ribboned between the hill heads,

Broiling, born amongst corries and high-strewn boulders.

A rumble, and rain films on the moors,

Through suddenly sodden fleece and field,

Flicked and shivered from huddled feathers,

Amidst the peat banks and the tufted grass,

Guttering, gathered in the crooked dykes –

Trickling in earshot but out of sight, and

Rushing underneath the dog-eared booms.

Below,

A rippling, a gathering pour,

A foetal push onto cracked reservoir floor.

At the shieling, moor-cold, alluvial fingers grope between weathered stone joints,

Curling under where eaves once hung.

*Thanks for reading, folks. Image courtesy of Rob Burke. My recent short stories include ‘Digging‘ and ‘After‘.

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.