Seagulls

There must have been birds, the first which circled shrieking, that fall day their shrill warnings that burst welcoming through the mist and spray. There must have been gulls which dived at those three Spanish sailing boats, birds to announce they had arrived at land which might at any moment float toward them. The sailors must have sighed the Spanish words for gull and sky pointing at wings riding the tide lithe scavengers with beady eye harbingers of rest and port turning their labor into sport.