in the grass

in the grass

the black-backed gulls
have packed in the
sea and beach
in the dusk
that blows
the estuary
towards
the dark,
the black-backed
gulls are looking
for something
on the field
in the cold
nips of rain,
something one
has lost but
all must find,
school was
out hours
ago,
no children
to help
them now
fine-comb
the grass,
the black-backed
gulls are finding
drops of rain
gathered
down the
channels
of its
leaves,
they are
looking for
that something
in the grass,
they are
looking for
the sense
of gull,
the whyness
of being so
other from
all the other
birds, the
answer they
hang on
the air
for
by
blustery
dawn
and
morning.
the black-backed
gulls have
taken matters
back to the
drawing
board,
the original
field from
which they
flew that
muddle
of ages
ago.

24 – 29 november 2020
Panmure Bridge School

The music is from a 1998 recording of Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 20 in D minor, K466 by Martha Argerich with the Orchestra di Padova e del Veneto under Alexandre Rabinovitch.