Seagulls

Stepped out into the yard for a bit of a break and there was a gull calling overhead. There's something so forlorn about their calls -- it's like the idea of desolation given voice.

Gulls are starting to replace pigeons as our flying rats here, at least in some parts of the city. At the Zoo they have signs asking you not to feed the gulls -- the sparrows and pigeons are OK, I guess, but the gulls are really obnoxious, although rather more wary of people than the sparrows seem to be. (Sparrows here are quite bold -- I've had them on the verge of taking crumbs from my hand. Almost.)

The calls of gulls have always affected me like that.

our wild gardens
painted real and fading
mortality takes root beneath the flowers
as the season turns on waning days
raining days
and a gull screaming lonely
hopelessly
at nothing