Date:         Thu, 19 Jun 1997 11:02:56 -0500
From: Phanny <corbett@SLUAXA.SLU.EDU>
Subject:      SUB: CONTEST: Non: Poem: SEAGULL

SEAGULL

gloomy day of grey
skies threatening
wind and storm and rain,
july mocking october,
windswept, whitecapped water.

seagull stands on his rotting pearch
of pilling stuck into the bay
like a sword thrust
into the heart of my being
as i gaze outwards

at the bay
and the gull and the water,
and life and death,
the common future
of the gull and i,

as it starts to rain
in my memory of childhood moments,
haunting me with images of the past,
as i turn from the yet-to-be-,
reaching for the only-to-have-it-back-again,

as spirits press about me,
felt-not-felt, seen-not-seen,
heard-not-heard, wanted-not-wanted,
the ghosts of my past
that went without my knowing

to where and to when,
why and how i never knew.
they flew away like
those wind-tattered clouds i see
boiling across god's great sky,

as i turn back in bitter memory,
away from bitter crying,
from the pain of present knowing,
back to beach and gull,
to seawall and me.

the seagull ruffs his feathers,
as the child hunches shoulders
seeking shelter from the rain,
coming now in torents,
tears from angels eyes.

gull and child stand dreaming,
the pouring rain masking,
distant visions of the world,
sheets of falling water,
niagara of the skies.

the rain hisses upon the rocks,
and god sees that it is good.