“The geese are winging in from the north. First a hairline thread in the muted horizon, then a cross-stitch in the sky over Portaferry, in County Down, Northern Ireland. Soon a dark and honking seam gliding in against the ebbing tidal narrows, breaking rank at last to alight in ungainly spray atop the waters of Strangford Lough …”
This is the opening to a recently published short story of mine, “The Ornithologist’s Last Wish”. The fine folks over at Phantom Drift have included it in their inaugural literary journal of “new fabulism”.