Science  Write  Now

For the leatherback turtle and Far Eastern curlew, 
the clamour to reproduce begets rituals of distance, deposits
of magnetite in receptor cells, or blue-lit electrons made
dervishes by the magnetic field, stitching their seasonal
journeys across the map like ink-dark strands of brocade.
They arrive at their own birth places, secure a craggy
vantage in a crowded rookery, or plough flippers through
scare-yielding dunes, then re-enact the choreography of new life. 

~

The magnetic north pole was an atoll of attraction warbling
off coastal Canada.  It began burbling toward Russia a century
ago and is now swollen into a full-throated march, in thrall to
the churn of iron in the underworld, the collusion of ions at
the curtain of space.  Some doyens predict our compasses will
soon yaw south–the magnetic poles reverse every 400,000 years.

~ 

In the vortex of norths–magnetic, geographic, geodetic,
astronomical, grid–not to speak of the moral compass– there
are so many ways to lose your bearings, to disconnect.  There
is no internet, no correcting satellite, for leatherback turtles
and the Far Eastern curlew, yet the dance continues.