seagulls

seagulls

the seagulls are back

they weren’t here

when we arrived last fall --

though I thought it odd

to have a seashore

with no seagulls –

and suddenly now it’s spring

and here they are

cackling and swooping

as if they’d never left,

as if they owned the place!

apparently they are migratory birds

these are terns actually

with the elegant black heads

and sleek gray and white wings

but they make the same sound

as ordinary gulls

depending on your mood

it can sound like riotous laughter

or a most melancholy cry

they remind me of childhood summers

in my grandmother’s house

on Martha’s Vineyard

where that cry is the sound I remember

more vividly than any other

the seagulls’ cawing was constant

it’s what I woke up to every morning

in my tiny pink attic bedroom,

what I heard throughout the day

from the beach or the backyard

or biking about town,

and it was what I fell asleep to in the evenings

as the last of the daylight faded

it was for me then a soothing sound

and a comfort to know the gulls

were watching over me --

my special summer friends

I’ve missed them here.

And wherever they were,

I am so glad they’ve come back!

thursday 28 april

easter 2016
Benure's Bay, Norman Island