What Happened?

I used to watch, annually, inland gulls come together one by one on the empty parking lot of the mall across the way before its stores opened. This occurred over several weeks before the birds took off as a flock for warmer wintertime weather. But not this year.

What Happened?

Scavenger gulls vanished from the landscape.

I tumbled to their autumn antics in the empty

mall lot where they mulled and mustered,

                                            lifted and dropped.

Scavenger gulls: cancelled.

Morning assemblies: no more.

I stared out my window craving to see them

on their inland climb out of wintertime.

But scavenger gulls faded, evaporated

          from my denim-jacket days.

Marilyn Aschoff Mellor