Finding Home

How far will a bird fly to escape

Winters arctic display?

A thousand miles or two,

Following the same

Migratory pattern year after year.

Yet we are surprised when a man

Changes his skin to escape the past.

That the earth continues

Its seasonal cycles whether

We are here or not is miracle enough

Or that salmon know the way

Back upstream to their spawning pool.

We will never understand the conversation

Between the trees and the wind

Or how far we will travel

In our lifetime, a million miles

or only a dozen, so what can we

Ever hope to understand

Of our own lives?

That we always find our way home

Is miracle enough.

Published in Poem, May 2010