Archive 05/19/10 - (3)

   

A Crèche

                                                                  

What have I done, this sun-glazed Wednesday a.m.,

Other than just be here,

Poised to seize whatever might happen to get seen

By my eager senses and keen creativity...

What, indeed, to have inherited an expanded band of Canada geese,

 

Three distinct, apparently intact families:

One gander and goose vigilantly overseeing a quartet of goslings,

Precious little things dressed in fluffy, yellowish-brown down,

Their wings mere vestiges, this early in spring,

Their strayings short-lived, as they scurry back to the pack;

 

A second pair closely shepherding their trio of fledglings;

And a third herding an octet of babies —

The whole crèche foraging, along the shore below my cabin,

Grazing on grass, flowers, especially the delicious dandelions,

The elders consuming the whole plant, their issue seeds only?

 

For half a clockless hour, I watch this aquatic flock

Plopping into the water, hopping back out,

Filling their craws and gizzards with tender blades and grains,

Luxuriating in their vigilant independence, their free will,

Their pride in being so safely engaged, purposefully united.

 

Then, having briefly quelled their insatiable appetites,

They glide away, in three discrete groups,

Very much together, for protection, yet very much apart,

Each set of goslings paddling, in a neat row,

Between a surveillant lead goose and a trailing gander.

 

And now that these young families of the wild have left,

To feed at other sites further along the lake,

I believe I know what I've done to deserve observing them:

It has everything to do, after all, with just being here,

Becoming one with the abundance of wonderment.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

                                               

 

05/19/10 - (3)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 
 
 
 
 
       

 

 
   
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