The Seagull from Eternity's Sunrise by Peter Ostrowski

On the sea flecked with light, a gull lands on the water.
In silhouette against the sunlight
Beats then folds its wings.
Above us both the clear blue sky’s immensity engulfs us,
And we’re but two more transient waves to touch this shore.
Through eons our dear home has lain here,
Ever changing colours burned
Where heaven’s bright kaleidoscope has turned.
Each morning Eden’s first dawn,
With each fall of rain we’d grow
Until we changed to what we are now, a thousand years ago.
And left ourselves behind us, a thousand years ago.

There must be something in the waves,
For the bird taps at the water
And bobs upon the wakes of distant cargo ships.
Looking up into a sky now filled with others circling,
It opens up its black beak and calls to them all.
The seagull tells of magic and the thrill and joy of life.
Wordless poems echo, fade and die.
I don’t think she can see me,
And there’s so much I don’t know.
We wanted to be seagulls a thousand years ago,
To touch the sky without machines, a thousand years ago.

I didn’t see her taking flight, I looked away for moments.
And now the only gulls I see are high upon the air.
The only cries that reach me are directionless and distant,
Caught between the roaring water and the beating wind.
The golden sea spills from the sun in torrential holy flame,
And yet a curious calm and peace remain.
Perhaps we never were here, and maybe dreamt it all
On a beach watching waves break, a thousand years ago.
Seagulls gliding over water, a thousand years ago.

• Folk
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• chanson
• literate
• scifi
• Wickford