Resolve
We go to the shore
see the gulls, maybe
we name them:
herring, black-headed,
laughing, ring-billed;
maybe we throw crusts of
saved bread—offerings
that we may pass, we may
stay, may they love us
despite our arrogance and
destruction.
May they love us though
we make ourselves
thieves in their sanctuary;
polluting the air and water,
the least culpable of us
begging forgiveness
for the most.
This winter they fly
inland, covering rows
of harvested mono-crops
in otherwise barren fields.
Are these small migrations
their reply?
We selfishly claimed
what is theirs,
encroaching on
what we are allowed to borrow
for our lifetimes and they come to us,
proclaim, “Enough.” They come
to step on the soil, bless it
with webbed feet
meant for pushing water,
instead pushing grief.
Their ancestors lost the world once;
they refuse to lose it again.
Loralee Clark‘s fourth poetry book is Neolithic Imaginings: Mythical Explorations of the Unknown (Kelsay Press, 2026). Clark has been nominated for three 2026 Pushcart Prizes. She resides in Virginia; her website is sites.google.com/view/loraleeclark. Her Substack, which focuses on the process of creativity, is nosuchthingasfailure.substack.com.
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