Swallows return to Capistrano, and pigeons come home to roost. Even lemmings find something of a home on the wrong side of the seaside cliffs from which they like to dive. But for governors of Massachusetts, it seems, the only place to head after the end of a term is Harvard--and so that is what Michael S. Dukakis has done.

Dukakis announced last week that--just as his predecessor, Francis W. Sargent, had done--he will teach at the Kennedy School of Government for the next two-and-a-half years.

Dukakis, who will assume the duties of lecturer and director of Intergovernmental Studies at the Kennedy School, said he will examine the role of state and local government in reshaping the cities, and also try to explain the relationship between federal and local governments.

He will also work on a Kennedy School research project exploring the roles of chief executives in the United States, Canada and Britain.

Kennedy School officials were quick to praise Dukakis as a knowledgable politician who knows his way about the government bureaucracies he is supposed to explain.

Graham T. Allison '62, dean of the Kennedy School, said Dukakis will help the scholars at the school, because he understands government officials, and can say "what they think are the problems, instead of thinking them up for ourselves."

Dukakis's most serious problem, however, may be deciding what to do with himself in the future. The former governor freely admits that he may find additional work--possibly with the federal government, or perhaps in television, the medium that gave him his public start as moderator of "The Advocates."

Dukakis says any outside work he does will "be secondary to my work at the school." But his name keeps popping up in larger contexts, including mention as a possible member of President Carter's cabinet if any openings arise in the Housing and Urban Development or Justice Departments.

And so Dukakis's work may not exactly be full-time. After all, no matter how many politicians flock to Harvard, few of them consider it home.