I called her Seaguill because of her beak.
We’d been on holiday for only a week
and after playing alone on the beach for days,
I found her in a rock pool and she asked me to stay.
We were twins, you see, dressed in the same clothes,
same dress, same hair, just a different nose.
I’d sing, she’d squawks I’d dance, she’d fly;
together we explored sand, sea and sky.
My parents called her my imaginary friend
and told me that soon our friendship must end,
but she was my twin sister, not imaginary
and she agreed to come home with me.
We sat on the back seat, playing I-spy,
counting how many red cars passed by,
and fell asleep in each other’s arms;
she promised to love me, see I came to no harm.
But the holidays ended and I went back to school,
I forgot about Seagull…