Join the Neopoet online poetry workshop and community to improve as a writer, meet fellow poets, and showcase your work. Sign up, submit your poetry, and get started.

SEAGULLS IN THE MARKET

They loiter in every fish market in the world-
Some nap on a breeze above neon signs,
Others on the giant palm trees by the shore;
Some sit on the jagged tips of the moors,
Or on the walkways to the selling carts,
Chased by waddling and laughing children,
Arms extended, fingers fanning the air...

We share the smell of crab and tiger shrimp,
Where fish are stacked head to head, eye to eye,
By the hundreds as rainbow colored corpses
In crates, on nets, like ice packed ears of corn;
Each wears the same stunned expression,
At that moment they were suddenly torn
To end up here in a final transgression
To sustain us and these birds another day.

How the gulls cruise about our trays of jewels
And perform their chants of common chorus
Known to each human ear, the song of the wild ocean!

They watch our silent parades on the pavements
And sing in languages with different accents
Known only to them; yet we listen
As they hover close to us with wide wings,
Like outcasts from the seas, homeless immigrants,
Who have chosen to live among our fish stalls,
Begging for a handout or a scrap of shell,
To remind us of the of mariners we once were,
Rejoicing in their song, guiding us to the good land.

Last few words: 
transgression - "the spreading of the sea over land as evidenced by the deposition of marine strata over terrestrial strata"
Editing stage: 

Comments

of little nit-picks. The plural of shrimp is....Shrimp! No ess.
I think you meant [cruise] and what was the word you wanted; Scrap or scrape?
I thought that this work was something that a fisherman would compose.

There is value to commenting and critique, tell us how you feel about our work.
This must be the place, 'cause there ain't no place like this place anywhere near this place.

but did you like the poem?
I did not intend it to be as written by fishermen, but just another customer at the fish market. That all of us have a connection to the ocean, and have a connection with the Odyssey, the Ancient Mariner,
Noah, Columbus, or Capt Ahab..and the Seagulls are our connection to that instinctively known journey, who . guide us to the land .
I am aware there is no such thing as a seagull...there are hundreds of different "gulls"..but as it is common language, used by Chekhov and everybody else, I went for it.

Eumolpus
I'd rather learn from one bird how to sing
than teach ten thousand stars how not to dance
ee cummings

author comment

I did like the poem. ~ Gee.
.

There is value to commenting and critique, tell us how you feel about our work.
This must be the place, 'cause there ain't no place like this place anywhere near this place.

A different take on the same title I used on a poem. Your poem is a lot more literal than mine and thereby more realistic

To "SEAGULLS AT THE MARKET"...wouldn't want to plagiarize!
Couldn't find your poem in the considerable number of poems you have since 2010...is it listed?

Eumolpus
I'd rather learn from one bird how to sing
than teach ten thousand stars how not to dance
ee cummings

author comment

Nice one

magic of your words has created images, sounds and the mood....what more can i say?

Regards...

raj (sublime_ocean)

it is the seagulls who are the outcasts, and homeless immigrants. Perhaps it is the word "like" that may cause a confusion, when it might as well been direct

As they hover close to us with wide wings,
The outcasts from the sea...

I was hoping the conclusion of the poem would add to a metaphor about the seagulls who are also the beggars in the markets, immigrants from the sea, speaking in a foreign language, waiting for us to drop a french fry or sifting though the oyster shells left on the picnic tables..at the same time the birds who gave hope to the mariner, guiding us to the "good land". ..
make sense?

Eumolpus
I'd rather learn from one bird how to sing
than teach ten thousand stars how not to dance
ee cummings

author comment
(c) Neopoet.com. No copyright is claimed by Neopoet to original member content.