Do you remember?
When we spent an evening
Watching birds at Hataitai beach.
There were the Cormorants
With their wings spread
Drying off in the dying summer sun.
You told me that they don’t have oil
In their feathers.
I said, neither do I.
We stole glances at the mallards
mating with grey ducks,
Shamelessly rutting the day away.
The gulls who chatted incessantly,
Speaking in tongues we’ve never heard
In a world we’d never understand.
Do all birds speak a common language?
Who needs a tower of babel,
when you can fly?
Oh!
There’s a gull,
Standing on another gull.
That’s us, I said.
Hmm? You said.
Nevermind.
Look, over there.
Mere meters from our feet
An Oystercatcher hunts his prey.
Searching along the beach
For beasts
Disguised as rocks
And filled with meat.
Well,
It’s getting late.
And these memories
Are already fading…
The next time we remember,
Will it be as it was?
Or will the gulls turn to sparrows,
And the beach to the woods?
Will I be I?
And you be you?
