Engineering

I have a friend who likes bridges,
in them sees the genius of design.

Me, I prefer waves
and the crossing paths of birds

Coast

It’s like if someone were to offer you
one hundred dollars, no strings attached—
you’d consider yourself
lucky, take it every time.

That’s how I feel about pelicans
gliding low over the water,
never once flapping their wings,
coasting up the endless coast.

Leath Tonino is a freelance writer publishing poetry and prose in Orion, The Sun, Tricycle, New England Review, Outside, and elsewhere. A book of his essays, The Animal One Thousand Miles Long, will be released in September 2018.