Station

Robyn Sarah
From:   Questions About the Stars. London, ON: Brick, 1998.

for D.

The gulls around the space ship
in front of the science museum
seem to like the space ship.
They seem to be
thinking about it, too,
walking in circles on the polished grass
and casting it sidelong glances as the light
glances off their polished backs.

So much clean bright whiteness here
on the flat smooth green
at summer noon!
We come to a halt
before it—who would not?—and gaze.
The gulls are white as envelopes,
and circulate. The stationary
hull reverberates with gleam.

Not what we came to see—
two travellers, refugees
of our own pasts,
come for the day on business—
still, we have
(for no clear reason to be fathomed)
to pause here, hand in hand,
trying to net a thought,

blank as the gulls
and the mute ship poised for flight
it will not take. The thought
that beats, propeller-like,
above our heads
is that we're here—
wherever we were before,
wherever we mean to be.

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Robyn Sarah's works copyright © to the author.