10/25/08 Migration Pattern

I thought I saw the geese circling up
over the fields south of town while I sat
at the Cottonwood BMX track one Sunday.

I hadn't seen any yet this autumn at all,
and was looking forward to the melancholy
and sense of doom they always awaken in me.

So I craned my neck to see the V's taking off,
then overheard a man tell his wife look the
sandhills were flying south for the winter.

Sandhills. Sandhill cranes!

I didn't even know they came through here,
I say as if they were the traveling Shriner's circus
or a pack of migrating helmet-less Sturgis bikers.

And I got all excited about these birds that
looked remarkably like geese from the ground,
but that said whirrrr instead of haaaa.

Damn sandhill cranes flying south instead of geese,
and taking all of my well-deserved and
hard-fought melancholy with them to Florida.