notdeermag
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.
Kurt Newton's dark fiction and poetry have appeared in numerous
magazines including Penumbric, Oddball Magazine and The Wild Word.