Tuesday, August 05, 2025

mmmmdcclxxxv

Seagulls

I live by the ocean.  Not
directly on the beach or
anything, but within a few
short miles, maybe five.

This new apartment is the 
first place I’ve lived in 25 
years in which I actually 
use a heater on occasion. 

I'm not sure why I men
tion that part.  It is just a
thought that I had.  Some
thing to communicate.  This 

morning is quite the occasion. 
I can hear birds squawking 
in the distance, a whole lot
of them, and I hear tires

screeching.  Just the one
time.  But otherwise, it’s
quiet.  Okay, there’s an
occasional car passing

in front of my apart
ment building.  The
alley that i live next to,
you see, is a bit of a

sound trap.  I’m a block
from the mayor’s office,
so, on weekends especially,
there are these protests,

and some of them can
get pretty loud.  I hear
those; I don’t get out too
much.  Not like I used to.

And anyway, those birds,
they remind me of some
thing that, having grown
up in a landlocked state

in the middle of a country,
where I was born, still call
home.  Well, I’m from there.
But now I’ve lived here more

than I lived there.  Same place,
in a way, same country.  But
now it’s just that I live by the
ocean.  In a city I truly love. 

With apologies to all of my 
family and to everyone I grew 
up  with, I no longer like going 
back, really.  Well, it’s a bit

more complicated than that. 
Some things are.  Also, Ive
been through some tough
times here.  Many wonderful

times.  Mostly wonderful.  
But thanks to the not-so
great ones some occasion
al pangs get mixed in 

with the love and and the
happiness and contentment 
that I have about my city. 
Occasionally, when that 

bitterness, which never
takes me over, becomes 
just a bit of a burden, I’ll 
trek out to the beach, sit

on the sand, watch the 
waves roll in.  Like me, 
they’ve come quite a ways 
to get here. And I really 

appreciate them.  I like the 
roil and the spindrift-dark
ened beauty of it all.  It 
gets chilly there, most 

days.  I mean, I don’t go 
all that much.  But when
I’m there, I can just
watch it for hours, the

massive, magical, sinister, 
monstrous living thing
that is the ocean.  The
one that I’m pretty

much always aware of,
my bearings always so
dependent on the fact
of its existence in my

vicinity.  It’s there.  I’m 
here.  In a place where 
I’ve withstood a few not-
so-silly challenges just to 

remain.  I can’t imagine 
living without it.  My city 
and the ocean that it 
touches.  Yeah, that’s 

what I wanted to say,
that’s what those seagulls
are telling me to tell you:
how glad I am to be here.

king of the seagulls