Lamination Colony

Michael Kimball is guest editing Lamination Colony and he asked me for a short piece. I wrote another deleted scene that would have been in Falcons on the Floor, but Salim, the main character, chose not to include it in the final draft (files). Sounds weird. I know. But somehow it works.

Here's the first few paragraphs of what I sent in:

We hadn’t seen too many vultures on the second day of walking. We hadn’t seen much of anything.

Mostly, birds circled the bombings, where the cities barfed up body after wet body, mangled fighters or family members crushed on their sofas. The vultures swarmed, sallow in the heat. Overstuffed and grimacing. Big bloated turkeys with grim reaper smiles. Fat as shit birds that would send a jackal screaming in the other direction. And the frantic vultures clocked, in gangs, along the outskirts where all the other derelict animals scavenged, burrowing into sopped pantleg and sleeve, pecking out and picking clean. They weren’t crazed by what they were feeding on, but by the volume and variety of meals available – al dente, flambé, all fucked up.

We’d left all that behind us, we’d thought, Khalil and me.