Pelicans of the Bay

These photos were taken on the Gulf in South Texas back in 2014, when I lived there and walked the bay every day. The pelicans were my buddies, at least that’s how it felt. They let me get closer, closer than most people ever do, and they always seemed to be posing, guiding, or quietly talking in their own salty air language.

Pelicans are flighty, yes

but not in the way people think.

They’re your buddies, your sky companions,

your characters in this poem.

They fly.

They pose.

They hold the bay like a secret they’re willing to share

if you walk slowly enough.

These ones spoke without sound.

They lit the way as I walked the shoreline,

following me, circling me,

carrying me in their wide, ancient wings.

My Canon Rebel pointed upward

toward birds, clouds, ocean mist

and they let me in.

Closer than I should’ve been allowed.

Close enough to feel the air move

when they rose.

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