Parking Space

Parked and eating lunch Thursday, I was blankly gazing at gulls that were habitating the parking lot around me.



Some people write them off as dirty scavengers, living off of the refuse of our tar-covered retail wasteland. It's easy to forget that they're really shore birds and far from their natural coastal environments...



Stopping to listen, their high squeaking calls began to remind me of long sweet summer days and laying out at the beach...



...warm salty breezes wafting by, mixing with the coconutty smells of sunscreen...the sand, almost too hot underfoot...waves crashing and retreating with a low constant roar...some one's radio playing that summer's hit pop tunes, just almost out of earshot...kids squealing and kicking up sand as they run by...



...and up above, the seagulls' calls as they hover on the wind currents, and swoop down, squabbling with each other for tidbits of food in the sand.



Aaah, I can almost picture it...



But then, inevitably, a crow will swoop by calling out with it a loud mocking 'caw'...and we're back on the cold pavement again...parked next to a snowbank.



Ooof.



The wait continues...