Conversation with a Seagull

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/R._N._Taber 

As the pandemic continues to drive many if not most of us too close to despair for comfort, my best friend, Graham, has suggested yours truly needs to despatch imagination to its home base, and draw on a native fantasy for relief. 

Subsequently… 

Now, hindsight can be a worthy mentor, but a tormentor, too, especially in the middle of a pandemic when we are able to enjoy little if any social life.  It’s at such times, as this, though, that we need to draw on our native life forces for inspiration and encouragement. Vaccines are becoming available; there is an end in sight, even if it will be some time coming yet. 

Patience is not one of human nature’s commonest virtues, but there is a common strength in it of which a common world humanity is in much need right now, so summon it we must… or risk going into free fall. 

Good luck everyone, let’s do our best to nurture a positive-thinking mindset, 

Hugs, 

Roger 

CONVERSATION WITH A SEAGULL 

I was treading water
in a river so close to home, I could touch
its pebbly shore,
had I been much of a mind to carry on
living any more 

A seagull came by,
paused in mid-flight to ask what I was about
since it didn’t seem
I felt inclined to swim, simply wallowing
in a bad dream 

I confided the seagull
my worst fears, piling up on me as time passes,
pausing in mid-flight,
more often than not to find me wallowing
in hindsight 

“I can’t go on like this,”
I told the gull, past mistakes taking me to places
invariably deaf-blind
to human hopes and desires as set me adrift
of humankind." 

“I could fly wherever,”
said the gull, “but whenever such whims take me
to travel farther
I reason the need, invariably get no further
than downriver.”  

“We all make mistakes,”
said the gull, “not least for our senses confusing us
now and then;
no harm done, so long so long we’ve learned
a singular lesson.” 

“Learning is such wisdom,"
said the gull, as lets us understand why such errors 
as how the land lies
wherever time takes us that needs must we
open inner eyes." 

The gull flew on, leaving me
feeling more hopeful than before, objects of despair 
left half-forgotten
for kinder times assuming pride of place,
all else forsaken 

Returning to that pebbly shore,
I entered a landscape (far) more beautiful than before
and (far) less hostile,
as if approving my chancing to converse
with a seagull

 Copyright R. N. Taber, 2021