THE PELICAN PATROL*

cruises the gut,

gliding,
    steady as she goes,
heads erect,
eyes low,
looking for
shore life breaking the law.

Silent monitors,
    eye-in-the-sky radar,
reporting, for all I know,
with CBs, cell phones or
hush-hush devices not yet available
in the stores.

The pelican patrol

cruises for guts,

fannies and more --
old yankee candles
burning both ends
flirting with heat,
sunburns -- 
    excesses provoking 
Mother Nature’s immutable
sunshine laws.

Merciless messengers,
no guardian angels these,
pelicans plead no one’s cases --
    burn, baby, burn;
just do their surveillance
then return to their roosts
    and place in the sun.

DRK
3/24/11

* In Lansing, MI, when young people drive their cars up and down the main drag, looking for whatever young people look for, they call it "Cruising the gut."