Steve Hobson
Arctic Goslings
They fall.
They are calling
like the far-off turning of a key,
and smell the drift of frozen salt
from the north; not so far away
the ice is cracking, and now
re-formimg. There is so little time.
The precipitous cliff is blocked solidly
against the pale blue Arctic sky.
The sun on the scree slope is hot
and shakes the little yellow flowers.
Up there, on the edge, the goslings roll
and bunch, uncertainly, feeling
a great emptiness and wind.
Instinctively, they peer across the long valley
to the unknown safety of the lake,
to the circling skuas
gathered in the scree updraught.
A patchwork summer fox limps
across the valley, watching
for the goslings to fall like keys,
trust their airy weight to the steep fall;
pick themselves up and run for the water
before the skuas dive and the foxes harass.
One jumps, and falls like a slow stone.
The fox is there. Casual.
One by one
they fall.
Page(s) 31
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