After twelve years I am
still astonished to live here,
to breakfast at Caroline’s
overlooking seafoam,
sipping coffee as a pod of pelicans
swoops above the brine,
umber wings outstretched against
sweeps of steel-gray cloud.
Everyone pauses amidst their
scrambles or pancakes or toast
to glimpse this wild wonder,
this marvelous moment,
where feathers and beak
and hollow bones
confront gusts of salty wind,
bending but not breaking,
rising up and up and up—
unflinching,
undaunted,
unafraid.
Awestruck,
I marvel at their flight.
Hope-filled,
I am kindled as they soar.