Suitcases smell of airports
the sky prepares to freeze;
old couples fold their Canada
and board the southern breeze
They laugh about their sunsets
their knees their northern tan;
but carry in their silence
the roads where life began
At thirty-thousand footsteps
they sip their maple tea;
and bless the land beneath them
for what it taught to be
By March they’ll drift back homeward
to find the snow recede—
for roots are just migration
that learned to take no heed