What I Didn't Know Before
A poem on the search for love after Ada Limón
What I didn’t Know Before
After Ada Limón
was that the Platte River in Nebraska
between February and April becomes more feather
than water when more than half a million sandhill cranes
descend upon its banks. They are here to rest and ready
themselves for an ancient migration ritual that has existed
since the day the moon was born.
This is not the only task that must be completed
on these sacred grounds before they become feverish
for flight. First, they must find their mate for life.
How else could a journey of 7,000 miles be bearable,
survivable even, without love?
I am certain that’s why the earth has kept turning for us,
spinning on an axis of benevolent hope that we may find
a love that lifts us off the ground, makes the heart soar
to dazzling heights.
- Ash Kilback
This was a rare visitor to a remote location of which I frequented over decades, the previous days, in narrow roads and blocking emergency exits and private land and local people's property, of which I knew 2. Families, they encroached in their obsession, and really selfish and possessed, foaming lunatics, it was a fairy tern or thereabouts, I slept on the beach 2 days later, and here she is, all the arseholes long gone and none of them got a picture of this lovely off migratory aspect sweet thing, but it lit upon this post above my head, sweet
This is so beautiful Ash! 🥹❤️