Poem: Seagull (Leith Docks, 1995)
Once before I've heard this anguished cry A long-drawn note of many-lettered woe, The great open beak straining against the roar of raging surf; Head, thrown back, taut against the distant sails Anger flickering in eyes flecked with amber, rolling in lonely knowledge, this bond servant of the sea, tied by its giant wingspan to the torturous flight of sainthood Martyred in its terrible existence murdered by the yellow fog of banality Victim to the squalor of urban beachfronts , snuffed out in the face of its own metaphor screaming curses unto heaven, proud to the very last; ''Once before'', I said, ''I've heard this cry''. ----- ---------- ----------- ---------- from Burnt Offerings 1996 ...