Cliff Gull Mum

Once there was a bird called Laura, whose children, Thomas and Kenneth had grown up and flown away. She had a nest on top of a hill and every day she would sit and wait for them to come back and visit.

She made a wee garden around her nest and kept a special collection of especially good worms for them to eat. She waited and waited and sometimes she worried that they might be lost or in trouble, but she never stopped thinking that one day they would come back.

She waited and waited for years and years and sometimes it got very cold and she shivered and sometimes it got so hot that she had to fly down to the sea and pick up salty water in her mouth and fly up with it to water her garden. Sometimes it got so windy that she couldn't fly at all and sometimes it rained so hard it hurt her eyes. Sometimes she felt so sad that she just had to cry because that was the only thing she could do to feel better. When she cried her tears went into the ground and fed the beautiful flowers around her nest. They were yellow and red and sometimes there were blue ones. Then one night, just as she was going to sleep she heard voices high up..

singing

     'Mother Mother, We're back We're back
      Please don't have a heart attack
      We've missed you so much our hearts could crack
      And we're very tired and we'd quite like a nap."

And it was Kenneth and Thomas and they flew down and cuddled up to their mum, one under each wing and she was so happy she sang a beautiful bird song all night and neither Kenneth or Thomas could get any sleep. they didn't mind though.

© MARTIN EWEN 1998

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