I'm hoping to get a picture today of a seagull on a pole or post to put here. I tried a couple of days ago, but none of the seagulls were interested in poles that day...only rooftops.
People hate them on rooftops. What a mess! We used to have 60 -100 that would sit atop our school roof adjacent to the parking lot. Needless to say, we complained - a lot! At the end of the day our cars looked like they'd been splattered with white paint. It didn't come off easily, so you had to decide if you wanted to drive looking around that splat, or if you wanted to try to use your wipers and make a fine skim coat of it to look through. The school actually has installed a rooftop speaker system that periodically plays the sound of an injured seagull, and that seems to keep them away now...not a very empathetic group.
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| Here you can see that the seagull repellant isn't working. |
The Seagull
A clever, handsome fellow
Is that seagull on the pole;
He sits up there to spy a clam
To pull out of its hole.
Whole?
He swoops down low without a sound,
He spies the clam's air bubble;
He grabs the clam out of the mud
And now that clam's in trouble.
Double?
He smashes it upon the rocks
With gusto and great zeal;
It makes a great big mushy mess,
Oh, such a tasty meal.
Appeal?
But that's not all the seagull
Likes to carry off to munch;
Be very, very careful
Or he'll abscond with half your lunch!
Crunch!
How fun! I love the way each stanza ends with a single word line. Very clever.
ReplyDeleteThanks! That was an edit find at the last minute when I rewrote a part and had a leftover, unused, previously used word that rhymed. I mentally went looking for others then, and "POP!" there they were!
DeleteI love it when that happens, and all of a sudden what you were writing becomes more perfect than you ever could have deliberately planned for! Good use of extra words!!
DeleteI like the extra rhyme too. It's very funny. It adds a kind of wry second opinion.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Liz! I am drawn to the wry and dry!
DeleteYou did make an additional statement all in one word at those ends, Donna. So clever! We were "hit" by a seagull on our last ocean trip. I don't envy you at the school!
ReplyDeleteIt was incredible to see them all congregate when the repellant system was broken for a while. Looked like a scene from Alfred Hitchcock's "The Birds"!
DeleteI love that extra one-word line at the end of each stanza, too - another voice! What a fun poem. (Though not fun driving around with white smeary windshields, I'm sure... And, re. the lack of empathy, I remember being surprised as a kid with the seagull violence in Jonathan Livingston Seagull.)
ReplyDeleteStrange animals gulls...I love them though. They are so clean looking for trash-eaters!
DeleteI love that extra one-word line at the end of each stanza, too - another voice! What a fun poem. (Though not fun driving around with white smeary windshields, I'm sure... And, re. the lack of empathy, I remember being surprised as a kid with the seagull violence in Jonathan Livingston Seagull.)
ReplyDeletehaha i love this!!!!
ReplyDeleteThanks, Barbra...oh, I mean Lynn! They were right, you do look a bit like Streisand. Ha!
DeleteThis is fabulous! I can see the birds congregating and plotting to get my lunch! The last lines are perfect for this poem and adds another dimension to it. REally good job!
ReplyDeleteOh, what fun...and I love the story behind this poem as well as how you came to have those clever last lines. I am so impressed with how fearless you are with your poetry, Donna- always stretching yourself and finding new ways to be creative and fresh.
ReplyDelete