Gulls at Todd’s Point
Shivering, knowing how lines of the tide
use seaweed, and sea-drift, and sea-touch (and bone)
to etch with, I wait to be marked on the sand
(a dragged sag of rockweed, a bulbed grace undone),
moved each way like feathers, slipped slow like a hand,
or whitened past breath. I’ve been moved till I’m gone
and nothing is ready to hold me inside—
following gull-shadows back over the land,
hiding myself. But there’s no place to hide,
whitening my hair in the wind or at dawn;
seagulls are whitening too, and they mourn,
turning and turning.
Annie Finch is author of numerous works of poetry, poetic translation, music, art, and theater collaboration, and poetics. Her most recent books include the audio CD of the poetry collection Calendars and Among the Goddesses: An Epic Libretto in Seven Dreams. She is Director of the Stonecoast MFA Program.
