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2018 Merit Award
By Nora Whitley Abelite

Clouds of feathers numerous as snowflakes
Cacophony of honks, hums and whirs greet me at twilight
Crowded in gaggles they bed under a frosty moon.

At dawn they wake with breath rising into a misty sky
At dawn my heart thumps to their winged drum
At dawn they fly off to reap, glean and fatten.

Each day of winter, I seek their soaring splendor
Each day of winter, I count their growing numbers
Each day of winter, I wait for their return.

Then one warmer morning they fly away
Into a beckoning sky for their appointment
Thousands of miles north to the tundra,
Leaving the fallow, harrowed fields lonely
With a secret want for tulips.

. . . . .
*Copyright 2018 by Nora Whitley Abelite. Broadside illustrated by Angela Boyle.