Category: Poetry

Warmth and Wither | Haiku

A detailed high-res close-up image of an oak leaf hanging from the branch of a tree. The leaf is beginning to turn brown at the dawn of autumn.

A creeping autumn, and two haiku to match…

A compost pile in late autumn light

Warmth

Autumn compost heap –

settling scraps, writhing red worms.

Slow warmth from within.

A detailed high-res close-up image of an oak leaf hanging from the branch of a tree. The leaf is beginning to turn brown at the dawn of autumn.

Wither

Hurried withering

of once-wick leaves. Reminder

of promise, deferred.

Thanks for reading folks. Recent short stories include ‘Passing Traffic‘ and ‘A Shadow World‘.

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, Down in the Dirt, and Shooter magazine. He has a Professional Doctorate in Education. Matthew blogs at www.matthewjrichardson.com.

Along the Margins | Poetry

Along the margins

of those great English, wind-brushed fields of barley

lay sunken streets,

the ringroads of rural Suffolk.

Here, where sun and moon rise and stare

at obsequious, nodding herringbone spikelets,

the countryside jostles and hums.

Amidst dog-eared booms

and weed-clogged culverts

and the shredded chaos of fly-tips innumerable,

fauna shuffles, hurried and unhurried.

A water vole snuffles,

slips from the cluttered hedgerow,

bubbles clutching thickset fur, feet scrabbling.

Dragonflies dart,

eye-slipped and iridescent,

hurrying to destinations unknown.

The sweeping fox,

the low-slung, lockjawed badger,

lords of the field, drink and pad away, their hunting undone.

Above, bats flit between shattered shards

of nighttime sky

whilst the always surprised owl

sits aloft, watchful for an unprotected scuttle

in the moonlight.

A rural cast, driven to pastoral peripheries,

centred for a while.

Thanks for reading folks. Recent short stories include ‘The Silver-Lined Ridge‘ and ‘A Shadow World‘.

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, Down in the Dirt, and Shooter magazine. He has a Professional Doctorate in Education. Matthew blogs at www.matthewjrichardson.com.

Leaf and Linen | Haiku

An ancient, thick cobweb in the corner of a small garden shed, more linen than thread. The cobweb is so thickset that it is more of a mesh than a web. The shed is disused and messy, whilst the cobweb looks thick and as though it has been there for years.

From the trees and into the shed with a couple of haiku…

Wide shot of a large oak in a field, which is bordered by a dry-stone wall. There are dappled shadows underneath the broad canopy. The oak stands alone amidst miles of open farmland.

Leaf

Leafy carapace,

shifting in the warm breeze.

Dappled shadows dance.

An ancient, thick cobweb in the corner of a small garden shed, more linen than thread. The cobweb is so thickset that it is more of a mesh than a web. The shed is disused and messy, whilst the cobweb looks thick and as though it has been there for years.

Linen

More linen than thread –

spider’s trap, muffled and chaste.

Ambition thwarted.

Thanks for reading folks. Recent short stories include ‘The Silver-Lined Ridge‘ and ‘A Shadow World‘.

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, Down in the Dirt, and Shooter magazine. He has a Professional Doctorate in Education. Matthew blogs at www.matthewjrichardson.com.