Birdbrain
Grant Frazier

Did you know?—magnetic bits in bird beaks

feel the magnetosphere, their birdbrains
see ions like color, they follow waves of
swirling axial poles pulls pulled pulled:::

Tonight—black night
on the baby-blue lake.
it’s march, 11:04 p.m.
haven’t seen you since fall.

It’s cold & sheer & cold
& sheer & cold & YET
we were yanked here,
couldn’t wait another bit.

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Grant Frazier’s Comments

I first heard this bird fact on Radiolab a couple of months ago. I don’t have the ability to see the Earth’s magnetic field, but I do still like to reflect on the ways I’m pulled by invisible fields. Why do I like to walk to the lake, even when it’s freezing? Why do I always want to climb trees? Why did I put those three colons in the first stanza? No clue. Sometimes we’re just being tugged along by an invisible string.

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