Long Beach Winter 
  
Long Beach decides 
it's now Winter. 
Mist rolls in 
on the huddled procession 
of buildings swaddled in gray, 
this seasonal dance 
of cautious light and migrating clouds, 
a civil encounter. 
  
A faithful ocean 
finds land in the morning-long twilight; 
the delicious lethargy 
of waking up with the clouds, 
day-long hues of wandering gray 
wielding uncertainties 
in the indecision 
of raindrops. 
  
Traffic -- slow sparkling jewels, 
inch carefully: 
subdued tires tiptoe moist asphalt 
in shy wet whispers. 
Palm trees sway sanguine prayers 
to their sun-god, 
abandoned by his seasonal visit 
to his Yucatán1 home. 
  
  
© Jon Bohrn (2000)

1Yu·ca·tán (y¡´ke-tàn, -tän)  A peninsula in southeast Mexico between the Caribbean Sea and the Gulf of Mexico.  The region was home to the Mayan civilization.

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Long Beach, CA, Winter 1999
Long Beach, CA shoreline in winter