Ilse Pedler
The Pull of Continents
The ‘arrow stork’ carried its piercing burden
for two thousand miles only to be shot by a different hunter.
African hardwood proving to early naturalists
that birds didn’t winter underwater
or transform into different species,
but when they felt the hunger
the pull of continents, made a compass of the stars,
opened their wings, and spiralled up thermals.
A billion Monarch butterflies crusting trees in layers
clustering in red and orange thousand-faceted chandeliers
oceans from home.
Salmon returning to their natal river
muscling up waterfalls lured by the smell of familiar
tasting home in turbulent water.
Buffalo,
lemmings,
caribou
and we too spreading across continents
shedding versions of ourselves
leaving our footprints in every unblemished place.
And when there is nowhere else–
still we go
in the backs of lorries
clinging to landing gear
rowing desperately with pieces of wood in leaking dinghies
taking journeys that for some become years
and for others
lifetimes.