‘19 OWLS’ - THE FORGE LITERARY MAGAZINE
‘19 Owls’ was published in 2021, in the fabulous Forge Literary Magazine, selected by Senior Editor Sarah Starr Murphy.
In March, the owls started walking into our school.
March, April, it was all we talked about.
By May, they were all over town, Barn owls on the roof of every house, Tawny owls blinking on bookshelves at the library, Snowy owls in the corner shop by the penny sweets, pecking through pink shrimp and white mice.
Eagle owls swooped raids through the pharmacy, building nests in shopping trolleys from paper bags and antidepressants, blingy rectangles of turquoise eyeshadow, shampoo for head lice.
They stared at us, flying low, dropping pellets on our skulls; knots of carcass, lip-gloss and erectile dysfunction medication.
By June we were all getting a bit sick of owls.
These days, we hide. We try to ignore them.
Rumour is the Council are releasing poisoned mice as bait.
Rumour is, if you touch an owl without gloves, you die.
Rumour is our teacher has a gun.