(with a quote from Mary Oliver’s poem “Wild Geese”)
I don’t know when it was that you told me
but, like everything else you tell me,
It changed the way I see things.
I was told to hear the wild call of the
goose as harsh and exciting
and an invitation to my place in this world
and I did
Until you told me that if that cry is singular,
if that goose is in flight, crying out
it has lost its place in this world.
Its place being closely held by as little as one more goose
as they fly together as a pair,
or in a V if there are more of them.
The cry of the goose is then echoed in flight by the others around it.
That’s not what I hear any more.
Now, I hear the harsh and frantic goose
calling out against an empty sky.
The only echo is his own voice
as it screams into the morning light
knowing it has lost its place in this world
knowing, as you told me,
it will die alone if it cannot find the others.
blue sky infinite 