The boy who knows all the park birds by name by Jacob Fowler (Lucent Dreaming Issue 5)

The boy who knows all the park birds by name stood
in the shallow of the pond calling duck names. “Little
boy, how do you know all the names of all the birds?” I
said. “I make them up.” he said. “Can you tell me
some of them?” “Moon, god, a little too hard.”
he said. “How many names was that?” I said. “One.”
and on his face was a grin that ripped through
the park with an electric shine. It defeathered a few
ducks, that’s all. “How did that happen?” he said. “The
feathers fell off.” I said. “Okay.” he said. His pale blue
eyes hummed like an egg about to hatch and my eyes
felt like the bottom of my heel. “Can you tell me one
more?” I said. “Maybe the ground will start shaking
forever tomorrow.” The water was warmer than usual
that day; the boy who knows all the park birds by name
told me one more name, but I can’t remember it.

Browse issue 4 in full.

Lucent Dreaming is an independent creative writing magazine publishing beautiful, imaginative and surreal short stories, poetry and artwork from emerging authors and artists worldwide. Our aim is to encourage creativity and to help writers reach publication! Subscribe to Lucent Dreaming now, support us on Patreon and follow us on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.