Sea Turtles

The female swims many hundreds of miles
to drop eggs on the sands of her own birth,
clumsy on land but a grace through salt waters:
stillness in motion across Neptune's leagues,
under its shell: soft relentlessness
breast-stroking a steady . . . patient . . . pace;

the weeks of her travel are part of one
ancient, ageless moment, reborn each year
an army of tiny turtles shuffling to sea.