From the foot of Cotopaxi
and across the Gulf
a Blackburnian warbler
follows a pulse,
follows Polaris
and the Pole's magnetic field
through travail
and travel's long ordeal,
until he drops
to a black walnut's
pinnate leaves
tossing like waves
in the North Sea
and glances toward
my lamplit, stationary world
of smooth planes:
against a cloud,
his throat's flame.
From Traveler by Devin Johnston. Copyright 2011 by Devin Johnston. Excerpted by permission of the publisher, Farrar, Straus and Giroux, LLC.
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