Geese Gathering: Salem, OR

Past Commercial Street with its lefthand, suicide lane-
Past the bungalows and their shattered cars-
Past the condos, the laurel, the governor's plot-

You reach Minto Park,
where the geese live, where their

honking and hooting and
honky-tonk snooting and
whippeng and wheezing and
breezing and teasing
flying and flinging
singing and winging
braying and brashing
laying and clashing
crashing and furling
hurling and whirling and
topsy turvy twirling
blacken the sky
in its orange
autumn
fire

by Marjorie Stadele