Consequences of proper litter disposal
You barely notice the ubiquitous white and black of a gull passing overhead. You stumble on. One pint too many, tonight; four’s fine, but after five you feel it. You burp, delicately. On a bin ahead another gull, big and fat, webbed feet and a beak like a Moorish sword. It‘s staring at you. You walk on. High above, other gulls calling- laughing. Why are there so many gulls? The council have instituted fines, and bins with latches. There should be nothing left for them to eat. You are still furrowing your brow when the flock descends, with beaks and hunger.
Ian Green is a writer from Northern Scotland whose fiction has been extensively published, including pieces for Almond Press, OpenPen, No Alibi Press, and The Pigeonhole. He won the BBC Radio 4 Opening Lines and FutureBook Future Fiction competitions. www.ianthegreen.com