Seagulls- you see them all your life

And hear them- that cacophony!

Far inland even on Parliament Hill

In my schooldays, I heard them then

And now, in our garden in Kent, that racket!

Once though, long ago we loved them

On holiday in Lyme, my Allie and I

And the girls, Cass, six, and Annie, three

We picked out two gulls from the thousands

And called them Angela and Jim

And every holiday we’d pretend

We saw our Jim and Angela

And call to them… back in the eighties

At Weymouth though recalling those days

Last month we saw our two old friends

Still called out “Jim!” and “Angela!”

Laughing and sad, the girls and I,

And Allie? No. She died last May

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