Gulls Roosting


Dark flurries over roofs and swaying trees

against the rosy evening

rise, swoop, dip and glide, slide

on barely beating wings along the fluent wind

the earth below spread cold in sudden shadow

scentlessness

of damp grass and dank soil; and the eye

floats west along the fallow valley

on the ceaseless stream receding

over wooded hills

to cliffs and crags of other sunlit clouds

along the world's rim