<span class="poem-title">Fishing with Birds</span>
by <span class="author">Ryan Van Winkle</span>
illustration by <span class="author">Lois Cordelia</span>
<img src="cormorant.jpg" style="width: 70vw;">
We sit on water and we wait
for something to cross our minds
like a change in weather
leaves a different atmosphere behind.
If we were flying over a hundred horses
would you notice if one was a donkey
or would you be too busy
with your Can’t Eat and Don’t Sleep
with your Push the Boat Out
and Get to Work on Time.
It was for the wind.
It was for the hunger.
It was for the silver
crowd applauding
in our throats, their hands
like a thousand wiggling fish.
I can navigate by the stars
and the moss on rocks
and you, by the smell of metal
and the rainbows of light
all along the vapid river.
Either way we both know
where we’re going
doesn’t matter.
So, shake your wings
until your beak clicks
and the wind blows
a map into your brain.
<span class="poem-title">Shag, Rampant</span>
by <span class="author">Philip Gross</span>
illustration by <span class="author">Sophie Gainsley</span>
<img src="shag.jpg" style="width: 70vw;">
Not a bird but a shaving of black
slivered off from a wave-tip
by a flight path level as a blade,
<span style="margin-left: 6vw;">he’s a wisp,</span>
a twist of lathe swarf, after-
image of the sunlight’s flash-
back from the every-angled heave.
Now he’s the one still thing
in all the surge-insurgency,
our slim Bonnie Prince Curly
<span style="margin-left: 6vw;">with his quiff,</span>
his emerald sheen, would-be-
heraldic – just a hint of irony
in his delicate beak. Now he’s off
again, hell-bent, kissing the swell
and always at an angle counter
to the way you're going. Or
<span style="margin-left: 6vw;">he sits
low-wallowed in a trough, spring-
loading himself for that flip up
and dive... gone now for minutes, for
too long, to bob up, too far, where
you (always) weren’t expecting,
with a shimmy, to shrug himself dry
<span style="margin-left: 6vw;">yet glitter –</span>
not the same shag, surely, but as if
the sea had each time re-conceived
the idea of ‘shag’. I can’t believe
they breed there, in the boulders
among hisses, grunts and wheezings
like a satanic steam machine
<span style="margin-left: 6vw;">beneath dark cliffs.</span>
No, each shag is a one-off, perky
rag of shadow with its crest up,
question-mark- shaped like a wry
Oh yes? It’s the sea’s riposte (believe
me, I have its authority to tell you
<span style="margin-left: 6vw;">lies like this)</span>
to too much daylight, too much
dazzle, too much blue.
<img src="shag-versus-cormorant.jpg" style="width: 60vw;">
It’s the fashion this winter:
to turn yourself into an oily seabird,
the better to weather the bonechill winds.
But which will you become?
[[Begin|Begin]]
{
<div class="preload" style="display: none;">
<img src="shag.jpg">
<img src="cormorant.jpg">
</div>}
Your <span style="font-size: 1.3em;">eye</span> is somewhat <i>reptilian</i>,
is it not?
[[Now that you mention it ...|Second question]]
[[My eye?|Second question]]
It is done. Do you see your reflection here? You are no longer human, but a snake-necked shag.
[[*Look*|Shag]]
The transformation is complete. See? In the glass? You have completely changed into a cormorant.
[[*Look*|Cormorant]]
(if: $shag > $cormorant)[(goto: "Result: Shag")]
(else:)[(goto: "Result: Cormorant")]
Shhhh fff-shhh wsssh.
(link: "Brehehe heh heh")[(set: $cormorant += 2)(goto: "Final Question")]
(link: "[...]")[(set: $shag += 1)(goto: "Final Question")]
The white flashing upon your thighs ...
(link: "I’m delighted you’ve noticed.")[(set: $cormorant += 1)(goto: "Third question")]
(link: "Oh I must have brushed up against the chalk cliffs.")[(set: $shag += 1)(goto: "Third question")]
When the road is quiet, I fancy I can hear the sea.
(link: "That is hardly surprising.")[(set: $shag += 1)(goto: "Fourth question")]
(link: "Tinnitus?")[(set: $cormorant += 1)(goto: "Fourth question")]
Why, is your top lip hooked, or are you sour with me?
(link: "Somewhat personal, doctor.")[(set: $cormorant += 1)(goto: "Fifth question")]
(link: "I was thinking of an incident.")[(set: $shag += 1)(goto: "Fifth question")]
May I brush your cheek ever so lightly?
(link: "You’ve knuckles like ice cubes!")[(set: $cormorant += 1)(goto: "Sixth question")]
(link: "*Turn away, to the window*")[(set: $shag += 1)(goto: "Sixth question")]
Would you describe yourself as svelte?
(link: "I prefer - kakaka - to say slim.")[(set: $shag += 1)(goto: "Seventh question")]
(link: "Hkr. I do not, generally speaking, describe myself.")[(set: $cormorant += 1)(goto: "Seventh question")]
I must know what hair product you use.
(link: "Slickfish - kr - wetlook styling gel. Hbbr, hbrr.")[(set: $cormorant += 1)(goto: "Eighth question")]
(link: "Prr. Surf style - brrip - texturising paste")[(set: $shag += 1)(goto: "Eighth question")]
Your coat ...
(link: "Ka-ka-ka, ka-ka-ka. Yes, it ka-ka-katches the tint of the fire.")[(set: $shag += 1)(goto: "Penultimate question")]
(link: "It’s heavy, I know. K-k-k. I stalk-k low - oo, oo - in it.")[(set: $cormorant += 1)(goto: "Penultimate question")]