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This writing was accepted for publication in the 108 page perfect-bound ISSN# / ISBN# issue/book “Wintering Over” Down in the Dirt v214 (12/23) Order the paperback book:

Order this writing that appears in the one-of-a-kind anthology Instant Karma the Down in the Dirt September-December 2023 issues collection book		get the 422 page September-December 2023 Down in the Dirt 6" x 9" ISBN# perfect-bound paperback book:

Wintering Over

Alan Swope

Six brown pelicans skimming
single file across Bodega Bay.
S-shaped necks, ungainly, prehistoric,
broad wings gliding on thermals,
perfectly still.

Each sighting still an exotic revelation
for me, a migrant here many summers ago.
My birth shores the Great Lakes, cool, gray expanses.
Pelican sightings a rare, historic event.
Lake waters displayed a Midwest restraint;
missing were the crashing, giant spray of ocean waves,
the constant roar of the endless Pacific.

In the sixties, California—its cities
named for angels and saints—
stirred a craving in dreamy Ohio boys.
I could feel the backwash flow
of the Pacific surf pull my feet westward.

Here half a century. Taken root
yet still an eternal visitor,
wintering over, captured
by the beauty, spellbound
by these giant birds patrolling
the coastline.

Like a bird, I sense Earth’s magnetic
fields pulling at me to complete
my migratory flight.

But here
I’ll stay,
knowing as I do
that home
is a time,
not a place

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