9/20/2020 POETRY: JENNIFER WENNAVIAN ODES—CANADA GOOSE The chill, glassy mist just then Dissolving into hints of sultriness Echoed with jubilant honks, Avian position-signalling on high, Pulling my gaze up to your magnificent Flying V’s northward bound Flinging joyful vernal greetings. Come the ordained crisp autumn day The calls echoed again off frosted fields As your arrow formations streamed south, Bidding farewell until spring warmth Once more crept in. Winter past was deep, consistent; Now it staggers all around, Reeling under humanity’s blows, Glistening white morphs To sulky brown mud, Defiantly open water Supplants sparkling ice. Eminently flexible, A few goose homebodies Spawned many more of you that Seize what’s on offer, spurn the effort And trade glorious flight for ungainly Waddling about and strolls through traffic, Expropriating luscious, manicured turf, Cheerfully crapping all over your squattage; Soaring nobility mutated to a Grey-brown-black wingéd pest Herded off the cathedral greensward By a bellowing leaf blower; Target practice for a skulking Archer in a London park; Clubbing victim of a sportsman Whose putt was ruined by an Inopportune anserine klaxon. Undaunted, you multiply and toddle on, Once a belovéd seasonal herald, Now flocks of Cassandras trumpeting Warnings, flaunting consequences, Announcing a battle joined. Jennifer Wenn is a trans-identified writer and speaker from London, Ontario. Her first poetry chapbook, A Song of Milestones, has been published by Harmonia Press (an imprint of Beliveau Books). She has also written From Adversity to Accomplishment, a family and social history; and published poetry in Beliveau Review, The Ekphrastic Review, Open Minds Quarterly, Tuck Magazine, Synaeresis, Big Pond Rumours, the League of Canadian Poets Fresh Voices, Wordsfestzine, and the anthology Things That Matter. She is also the proud parent of two adult children with a day job as a systems analyst. Jennifer Wenn's website.
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