Pink Footed Geese

Arriving from afar.

Sharp ‘v’ shaped formations,

piercing the sky,

merging through subtle acrobatics

into sinuous curves;

the fruits of their perseverance

reaped within the wind.

Simple calls,

that wake in us 

the utter primitive:

echoing,

infectious,

liberating.

Old folks

who’ve been in the village 

all their lives,

venture out with children’s eyes.

And we must ask ourselves

if like these geese,

we too are sometimes driven

by the forces of Nature;

to travel, 

flock, 

call out loud,

flap with a multitude of wings,

in movements

so briefly consummated?

Our lives too passing, 

with no less 

majestic artifice?

Edward Rogers


'Pink Footed Geese' appears in Thistle Brocade, Tuba Press, 2022. Reproduced here with permission of the author.