The Honeytree flock 2nd draft – done!

Just need to publish the thing now!  Here’s an excerpt…

 

Chapter 1

      I am too old to fly.  My wings are tattered and my tail feathers worn.  I spend my days sat amongst filth and piss on the rooftop of this vast hospital.  I am able to walk only a few paces to the edge of the rooftop and look either into the city (to the east) or out into the countryside (the west).  The ambulances stream in and out.  People limp to the main doors and drop their scraps of food.  I watch them, my hunger causing me to ache all over, unable to adequately shake the fleas from my feathers.  The younger birds keep me company and bring me those scraps, yet my eyes are faded and I’m unable to focus properly on their blurred faces.

On clear days I can make out the shape ocean to the south and the green of the forest to the north.  But the faces of the other birds remain elusive to my tired eyes.

The seagulls named this place ten summers ago.  Personally, I feel the hospital would have sufficed.  Or the Royal.  I believe this has a certain quality and is, of course, the proper name.  But the seagulls came with their strange language and enormous wings.  They imposed their ways on the place and named my home l’hospiltálet.  Their enforcers, le Securoiré, are long since vanished.  But in a strange way they still run the show.