The Thieving Gull

by Howie Good

Two gulls stand beak to beak on the shoreline, arguing in squawks and screeches. The bigger one finally has had enough. Lunging, it catches the other gull’s beak in its own. While they are thus contending, a third gull, smallest of the three, swoops in, scoops up the clam that has been the source of conflict, and swoops away. I gasp at its boldness. At the dentist they make you wear a bib around your neck and tell you when to spit.

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Howie Good is a professor emeritus at SUNY New Paltz whose newest poetry books, The Dark and Akimbo, are available from Sacred Parasite, a Berlin-based publisher.