Zugunruhe

Zugunruhe*

Who am I not to know - 

the unscientific truth of 

what attracts the butterflys

south? 

-      or how the puffins, long at sea find

their same birth shore?

Alignment of magnetic longing –

the elegant 

37- degree isotherm is

always reborn.

With ancient knowing, 

we find the angle of the sun.

Passing through us as gray star dust

and purple gravity 

the agile terns return

mid-May 

a unison of

homecoming flight. 

You cannot plan for this 

perfect migration, 

an ordinary rooted wisdom. 

I draft towards you too

as the primeval warm

animal

finding her home.

*Migratory restlessness builds up as day length increases. Scientists call this "zugunruhe," a German compound word consisting of Zug (move, migration) and Unruhe (