Their days and nights were filled
with black/white arguments
like those guillemots and razorbills
that stood in terraced rows on cliffs
they walked alongside. Echoes of muttered growls
reverberating. Each prolonged sulk
a surly silence. Quarrels resounding hour by hour
till there was no escape from the murk
of shared misunderstandings. Except to fly.
Black-white. Black-white. Black-white.
Their tongues and fingers flapping
as beaks snapped out their final quarrel
before taking flight in flurries of sad and sore goodbyes.