Working today at the old place
cutting deadwood off apple trees
I heard high overhead
two geese
flying in tandem
trading goose talk
heading south

My first thought was
it's early
winter's months away
they must be fleeing the wildfiress
burning to the north

Then I thought of how
through three millenia
Chinese poets found
in the flight of the wild geese
a much beloved trope
firstly for evoking
the kaleidoscope of feelings
that follow from the changing
of the seasons

Then for embodying
that wild effortless freedom
denied to us
poor wingless creatures
who have traded off
our wildness
for certain civilized comforts

To rise aloft
and fly away
to leave behind
the heavy tasks
familial responsibilities
that seem to hold us hostage
this dream of flight
humanity has shared
perhaps from our beginnings

Beyond that dream
the Chinese poets sensed
the power of the unspoken vow
that wedded goose and gander
in their lifelong bond
and I too as I watched this pair
fly out if sight
thought their bond
a trope of sincerity
something to wonder at
admire
emulate