I saw a lone white seagull,

graceful, proud and free,

soaring in solitary splendour

on a journey to the sea –

then over the sunburned river bed,

above the cracked brown clay,

a squabbling flock of predators

shrieked down upon its prey –

how need or greed or loneliness

can steal our dignity –

but in us all

is a lone white gull

with the courage to be free –