The Field Trip, Kurt Newton

Previously published in "The Ultimate PerVERSEities", 2010

Visiting the cow forest, the lecturer explains how

Gaia needed saving, so the geo-bio-engineers took

a needle and gave each cow a slow but necessary

death, and planted a tree in each nutrient-rich and

bloated carcass.

Most of us nod seriously, while others simply

laugh. The lecturer takes note, and herds us to the

picnic area where the grass is thick and green. As

we eat our lunches, the lecturer provides free juice

straws the color of the sun. For a select few, the

juice straws are tinted blue.

With the ringing of the afternoon bell, we line up

single file for the long bus ride home. As we pull

away, our stomachs content, a few of us get left

behind. Sleeping peacefully, their bodies appear

rooted to the forest floor.

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Kurt Newton's dark fiction and poetry have appeared in numerous

magazines including Penumbric, Oddball Magazine and The Wild Word.