CORNCRAKES

You must not let hand-reared
corncrakes see the stars, the night sky,
until the place and time is right.
Otherwise they will lock on
to the pattern that the constellations
create, at that time and in that place
where they first see them,
and you will not get the young
birds to migrate back to any other
place to breed when they are grown.
That first place where they saw
the stars will be forever the one
for loving and for home.