A Seagull's Soul

After motorcycling to Cape Cod with a friend, I took leave of him and rode off in the direction of the nearest beach. I soon found one, but its sands and waters were plagued by people, screening out what could've been miraculous beauty with ear buds and smart phones, reducing the majestic nature of the ocean to a place where they might catch a tan, one step toward a goal of ultimately looking more like whatever celebrity shone with artificial perfection on the cover of their last People magazine.

Seeing a land so dishonored recalled the words of Wendell Berry,

"There are no unsacred places;   

there are only sacred places   

and desecrated places."


 And so I slowly wandered along, steps falling on the marriage of sea and land, letting the ocean's waves form eddies around my feet. It was then that I noticed a Seagull, which appeared suddenly as a kindred wanderer and inspired within me the following:

And so I learn that I've a seagull's soul. A lonesome maritime heart, in love with an ocean whose depths seem to forever elude me. And the scavenging! There was never a sorry gull in a trash ridden parking lot as lost and bewildered as I, pecking at the empty litter of screens and controllers, a tragically misguided attempt to sate the intrinsic need for nourishment that only Truth can fulfill. And oh the futile flying against the wind! When will Your graces fuel my flight rather than hinder it? Surely I must wait for You. All things in time, and with an ebb and flow unconcerned with our insulated bubbles of hurry, control and sickened familiarity.

-The Monkey in the Middle

p.s. Here is a poem I must've written ages ago.

The time has passed, alack! alas!
To share in life eternal.
We swoon for swarms of lifeless screens
Forsaking forests vernal.

But your GPS won't draw a map
When you're anxious and plagued by strife.
I'm afraid they haven't made an app
For salvaging your life.