Purple sandpipers and White-winged terns
litter beaches where their portraits
cast shadows upon ocean shores
in August before they leave
to migrate, wipe coastlines clean
innate lessons that drive instinct.

 I always had envy for their ability to fly
to fantastic lands when in truth,
their journeys are often sour, perilous
to weather nature’s truth
that these creatures may never reach
their final destination intact.

 But it was their gift to fly, push up
from the ground and soar to new heights
surveying all that I see:
the elements of rain in dying seas,
changes of clouds that cast
misty dyes into the atmosphere
or feel free from constraints
that entraps us, life’s consequences.