Other than Personality Disorder, what term could you use to describe these people?
By Clare Shaw
These people are Arctic Terns
who launch their tiny weight into the wind.
Their problem is winter,
their problem is weather; they avoid storms
by taking the largest detours to find land.
They are abundant.
These people fly between poles
and they sleep on the wing - they spiral,
their endurance is legendary.
They will bite your head
if they have to: they will draw blood.
They sing a high song of alarm
and they know two summers;
They have been studied and trapped
and tracked in their journeys,
these people are remarkable-
they have magnets inside their heads,
they go where they have to.
They know the glow of the snow
on the water, the sea as a glimmer,
the mountains as blades in the sky.
And they are the subject of various papers.
And life is harsh, and days are endless.
Copyright Credit: Clare Shaw, "Other than Personality Disorder, what term could you use to describe these people? " from Towards A General Theory of Love . Copyright © 2022 by Clare Shaw. Reprinted by permission of Bloodaxe Books Ltd..