Routes take shape

 as flight takes root,

  and lines of geese,

miming tide look

more like unbound

 scripture, the past

  that comes to pass.

With clocks turned

back, sky spells out

 abandonment in

  the hand of wind,

a pact between cells

when cold lays

 down the law

  and waves of wings

break on time,

inherent faith,

 no different than

  ours, leaving home

to find the way home.

Barry Sternlieb’s work has appeared in publications including Poetry, the Sewanee Review, the Southern Review, and New England Review. His chapbook Winter Crows won the 2008 Codhill Press Poetry Prize.

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