So this is it. London Colney. They used to run coaches from here. Coaches that took us to the foothills of the Pyrenees. That was then, nineteen eighty-six. Now is Christmas Day, twenty twenty-two. I’m all alone by the bridge over the brook, far from dad’s nursing home. Despite the company of friends earlier, the quietness of this backwater feels appropriate. At this moment, I have little to live for. No future beyond the isolation of the copse by the cottage.

just another
windswept crossroads –
if you won’t end it
then maybe
I will

Dr Tim Gardiner is an ecologist, poet and children’s author from Manningtree in Essex, UK. His haiku have been published in over 100 print and online magazines and he has been widely anthologised. His first collection of haiku, On the Edge, was published by Brambleby Books in 2017.