Click here to hear the poet read his words:

the gull

isn’t it strange
how life can change
in an instant
when you realise
everything you wanted
everything you hoped for
everything you dreamed of
and worse
everything you had
is lost…

we are swimming
no
floating
lazily on our backs
in the gentle Mediterranean
just off the beach at Bonporteau
a calanque
or rocky cove
talking
laughing
happy
I think
until…

nothing tangible
not even a word
just a hint
a suspicion…

and then
as the doubt
slithers in
I see
on the cliff face
the fleeting shadow
of a swooping gull…

and I understand