Geese

Geese

by Janice Townley Moore

We round the steep curve to evening
fanning out over Lake Chatuge.

Hiking across the earthen dam,
we may talk or not.

Trees shaped like a Japanese pagoda
top a distant peak.

One of us always mentions that,

or the light in the leaves at sundown.
It is the same and never the same.

Walking in heat, sometimes through fog,
we wait the arrival of geese.

How will they surprise us tonight?

Author’s Comment: This poem reflects a familiar relationship enjoyed in a familiar scene. Perhaps nature has the potential for more surprises than the relationship. Or is it that the relationship is energized by the expectations that the geese provide? One can imagine the geese entering the scene in a dramatic way, perhaps emerging from the fog or silhouetted against a red sunset.

Bio: Janice Townley Moore’s poetry has appeared in such journals as Georgia Review, Prairie Schooner, Southern Poetry Review, and JAMA. Her chapbook, Teaching the Robins, was published by Finishing Line Press. She is a resident of Hayesville, NC, and teaches in the English Department at Young Harris College.