Migrations

by Charlotte McConaghy

I’ve seen a fair helping of the world and what strikes me most is that there are no two qualities of light the same, no matter where you go.

Arctic tern has the longest migration of any animal. It flies from the Arctic all the way to the Antarctic, and then back again within a year. This is an extraordinarily long flight for a bird its size. And because the terns live to be thirty or so, the distance they will travel over the course of their lives is the equivalent of flying to the moon and back three times.”

There is hardly anything wild left, and this is a fate we are, all of us, intimately aware of.

Thousands of species are dying right now, and being ignored. We are wiping them out. Creatures that have learned to survive anything, everything, except us.”

I can’t help but think no animal, ever, should live in a cage. It’s only humans who deserve that fate.

she wanted me to be left with something when she breaks free. The thing that calls to her, whatever it is, will call again. But she has forgotten my promise. I wait, always.