The Seagull That Loved Me Poem by Jan Oskar Hansen

The seagull that loved me

The seagull which lives beside the chimney
knew me since I fed it from the deck of a ship,
and it remembered me by waving its left wing
it had seen I am a lefty when throwing it dinners
not eaten by a crew who wanted cakes& ale
it had lived on the most easterly rock for
thirty years but had done to it advanced age
been threatened younger males, it gave up
its kingdom and by luck or instinct landed on
My roof. We ate breakfast together, it by
the window ledge outside eating sardines I had
bought the day before, I, a tin of tunny
I went for a walk when the sea-gull circled high
near the coast until its wings got tired and it
slept in the nest in had made beside the chimney.
During a fierce winter storm, it took to the wings
and I have not seen it since.