Goose on Mills Pond
by Sandra Salinas Newton
(inspired by Karsten Wall’s “Modern Goose” NYT Op-Doc 17 Sep 2024)
When you close your eyes and
Tuck your head beneath your fluffed wing
Breathing the warmth of your own heartbeat
Do you dream of flying
The endlessly blue sky where
You stretch your legs back
And throb strength into your wings?
But soon the world comes back to
Wake you with tonic blinks into
The grounded human sphere in which
You navigate, masticate, propagate,
And eventually die.
Perhaps a child lingering by the lake
Will pick up a pinfeather to contemplate
Its trembling wish to fly in an autumn breeze.
When you close your eyes and
Tuck your head beneath your fluffed wing
Breathing the warmth of your own heartbeat
Do you dream of flying
The endlessly blue sky where
You stretch your legs back
And throb strength into your wings?
But soon the world comes back to
Wake you with tonic blinks into
The grounded human sphere in which
You navigate, masticate, propagate,
And eventually die.
Perhaps a child lingering by the lake
Will pick up a pinfeather to contemplate
Its trembling wish to fly in an autumn breeze.
Sandra Salinas Newton is a poet and novelist currently living in Austin, Texas. Originally from the East Coast, she is now glad to see snow exclusively on calendars. She has published three novels and, most recently, over sixty poems in online and print journals.