Very Far South

 A new poem of mine, "Very Far South" has been published in the current edition of Able Muse Journal. This news article was the inspiration for the poem.  HERE is more information on the ruddy turnstone.

 

A ruddy turnstone

 

Very Far South

 

A ruddy turnstone with her I.D. band

has flown down from Québec to winter here,

like me, in Uruguay. I watch her land

upon the rocks beside the harbor pier

 

to share a mussel feast with golden plovers,

oystercatchers, terns and cormorants,

while overhead a scold of seagulls hovers,

mewing above the boundless blue expanse.

 

For years we’ve been migrating back and forth

exchanging latitudes for warmer weather.

With austral autumn, though, we’ll fly back north

exchanging panic-grass for firefly heather.

 

Inside Carrasco terminal, I’ll play

the lacquered Yamaha that sits beside

Salidas in the busy passageway;

then as my fingers tentatively glide

 

along remembered keys to Oiseaux d’Eau,

I’ll marvel at my feathered counterpart

who knows by instinct when it’s time to go

six thousand miles without a map or chart.

 

For now, though, I’m content to while away

the early morning hours by the sea,

where, on this brilliant January day,

the turnstone calls, oblivious of me.

 

 

 

(Catherine Chandler, 2026)