Home To Nest

It is surely the comfort
of tried-and-true expectations,
the confidence that what was there
will remain so, that urgently
persuades them to return.
Routine and familiarity alert
consciousness to the order of
the universe, as creatures
willingly succumb to urges
well beyond understanding
but which promise in some
dim recess of inherited memory,
fulfillment of destiny; nature's
clockwork existence.

As the hawks return to the
forest, whistling and screeching
their presence, they indulge in
wind-borne pyrotechnics to
exhibit their satisfied return.
And small, furred creatures
take heed.  High in a half-blasted
old pine another nest is assembled,
then occupied as owls prepare for
another breeding season.  The drake
and the duck again returned to
the shallow, turgid forest stream
dabble and proceed to nest.