Bird (actually: 'Seagull')

It may need further editing someday, but I think it stands well for
itself as is. I hope you agree...

Seagull

This morning at dawn as the sun poked
Its first rays across the blue horizon,
A white gull glided across a garden
In North London.
Solitary, she streamed through moist air above
Garden fences and bird houses, over palaces and pubs.
And over how many families of sleeping Londoners (?),
Grabbing their last hours of rest.
And when she rose towards the sun
She bore with her a new clarity.
And as she slowly swooped down towards the ground,
She had with her my old melancholy.
Clandestinely, she cut across our London air.
I saw her glide; I saw her ride the wind.
Then I saw her no more.
My melancholy has not ebbed, yet it need not.
But the clarity she brought today,
Difficult to digest, a bitter bulge in the
Throat, impossible to swallow,
Will see me go on, to witness another day,
And to see the sun's rays
Come tentatively over the horizon.

(04 July 2001)