Variations from before:

Variation #1

I hear the seagulls
booming like a bass drum.
Their absence is so loud.

Variation #2

Up springs the serpent Truth:

"Shake off this dust
& go into the world,
for here is death."

& every angry inch of him rings true.

These wasted years are gone.
Winter's end is near;
spring comes on slender rays of sun.

Soon leaves will splay my mind
& I may find the words
I've lost beneath the ice.

There is a time,
There is...