There are no gulls at the beach today
Cold nights now swell too long
Absent rays harness little song
While the low hung clouds loom grey
There are no gulls at the beach today
Nests relocated upon finer sands
To feast fortune in faraway lands
As even the shellfish have floated away
There are no gulls at the beach today
Screechy squawks fill not the air
Squabbles become absent fanfare
For just a lonely wind wails in the bay
There are no gulls at the beach today
Lost thoughts on walls echo about
Our life and dreams emptied out
Since you left with a wilted bouquet
There are no gulls at the beach today
The roost remains part completed
On the floor but not yet defeated
I clutch a bucket leaking words to say
There are no gulls at the beach today
Tomorrow I’ll return and thereafter
Until sorrow is replaced by laughter
When wings soar amidst the sea spray
Epilogue:
The beach is teeming full of gulls again
Graceful glides with swishing swoops
Playful pecks and frolicking whoops
Amidst woven hands dancing over pain
go pūkeko 