Greetings from the British Countryside by Allen Ashley

 

 

 

 

 

  

Greetings from the British Countryside 

 

Hope this finds you well,

if it finds you at all:

the postman only collects twice a week.

Our 18th Century holiday cottage is cosy and heritage chic –

I keep banging my head on the wooden beams

and haven’t had a mobile signal for days.

The night life is something to write home about, so I will:

the two-mile away pub

accessed along Stygian dark country lanes

stops serving gourmet grub at 9pm

and the Spar late shopper mini mart shuts at 7.

Still, the drizzle’s finally stopped.

Though I’ll probably never get them shut again,

I opened the mullioned windows

to weak sunshine

and the stink of liquid fertiliser adorning the adjoining fields.

Those farmers must be early risers:

no doubt woken at 3 a.m. by the local crowing cockerel

every sodding day.

 

Allen Ashley

 

 

Allen Ashley’s poetry has featured in print in places such as Brittle Star, Orbis, Jupiter SF, BFS Horizons and Wordland. He is the co-author, with Sarah Doyle, of Dreaming Spheres; Poems of the Solar System (PS Publishing, UK, 2014). He works as a creative writing tutor. 

 

 

 

 

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