Fairy Terns

Fairy terns fly out to sea each dawn.
White-winged
and delicate,
they travel in small caravans,
drifting softly above the waves
and white-caps.
All day, they relish the sweet sun on their backs,
and the fine salt spray on their bellies,
but then the sun burns low,
upon the flat, mottled Earth,
and the fairy terns
feel the pull of their nests,
of dusky palm breezes,
and they return to shore,
each and every night,
until it’s dawn again.