Big Blue Heron:
My food is under there.
The duckweed has cut off
my supply of minnows.
So I perch on the pine
and wait for an opening.
Whitey Egret
On this rock
I can detect
tiny
submarine
wriggling.
Pounce!
Dinner!
Blackie Goose:
No clearance for landing.
No problem!
Ka-lunk ka-lunk ka-lunk
We are the 21 gaggle
of Canada
splashing down
opening up
some water
clear
to the bottom.
Ka-runk!
The goose gun
screams past me.
She wants us to
go back
where we came from.
We live here now.
Oh, I get it–
you’re a great
white
egret.
You can stay.
We black-head
migrants
can’t.
At least they can’t shoot us here.
No hunting
near houses
just fearsome
smoking
screamers
shrieking
from the goose patrol.
But we have contributed!
Cleared a patch of pond
no one else wanted to clear.
Ok- we have so many
goslings.
Is that a crime?
They don’t like the way
we honk
so they cannot understand us.
How hard is Canadian
to learn?
Big Blue:
Whoa! Garrulous.
We are specialists
in silence
and waiting
and cooperating
between species
of herons and egrets.
Why can’t we be friends?
We let the fish and frogs
and eels
come to us.
No need of a siege of herons.
Whitey:
I can relate to you geese.
Not so long ago
my ancestors were hunted
for their white and soft
bridal feathers.
Then someone put a stop to
the killings.
No more guns on the pond.
Blackie:
My brothers and sisters
didn’t make it down here.
The blinds
the shot guns
the dogs
all for their fun
not even for food
or down for their damn parkas
and so-called comforters.
Big Blue:
Are they coming for us too?
Blackie: No.
It’s not the season.
Big Blue: Why do those men
have guns then?
Blackie: They shoot one another.
Big Blue: To eat each other?
Blackie: No,
they’re afraid.
Big Blue: Of what?
Blackie: The Others.
They are different.
Big Blue: Like me and my egret buddy?
Blue and white? And black like you?
Blackie: Exactly!
Big Blue: Why do they kill so many?
Blackie: They’re very afraid.
So they have very big guns.
Big Blue: Do the Others
have guns too?
Blackie: No.
They’re just shopping.
***
Bullets are flying.
Who will make them stop?
People are dying.
They shop till they drop.
