Birds On The WIng

Birds On The Wing
 
Birds fly high on the wind
Muscles ripple under skin  
We can’t see
Working hard in the sky  
The youngest on their first flight to a home never seen
Their muscles and minds must remember just where on the wing
 
Keep the heading on their place of far away on the wing
Miles away from the land beneath your feet
A place that you can’t see or imagine
So far from here
Warmth and water, food to eat
Spend their winter there after the flight  
 
It’s the same every year when they’ve completed the flight
For an eon they’ve flown there
No matter the poison  
That we pump into the water
Where they eat the fish swimming down below the surface
In the spring there are fewer left to take to the wing
 
And they take to the high winds and take to the wing
Tracking back to their other lands far away
Anyone in the pack with their lives on the line
They each take a chance with the lead in the sky
From the hunters guns on the ground
Tearing them down from on high
 
And now romance almost makes the males feel high
As the fly looking for a mate in the summer sun
But the old and the weak will not find a lover
Their days of bringing life into the world seems to be over
And they grow tired of the fight just to find food for the flight
And they’ll be weak when the sun sets early and they're off again
 
The make their way to the wintering grounds once again
And they work hard just to fly against the winds
Finding water en masse as they make their way back
To their winter homes far away from the pines  
To a home only known to them
Far away as they fly on the wing
 
And the hunters eat their poisoned meat they’ve shot  
And the circle we’ve made is complete without thought
As they grow sick, become angels and take to the sky on the wing
 
Oops, this was supposed to be a sestina entry for a comp but it seems that the definition by which I wrote it was totally wrong. Oh well, if at first you don't succeed, try try again. We'll see what I can do at some point in the future. Sorry.