I remember
getting
The two of you
in a box
On an early June
day
It’s a good
thing I woke up
Early, I was the
first to meet you two
The whole two
weeks after that I woke up
With the sun
Sometimes before
the day itself
To take the two
of you out into the yard
Sunrise to
sunset, we would sit out there while you ate grass
Once I fell
asleep and the two of you woke me up
By lightly
pinching my eyelids
It was like a
kiss
From the soft smoothness
of your beaks
I protected you
from the neighbor’s dog
And my own
And that hawk
And the cat
I even
eventually protected you from my parents
I didn’t care
how loud
The two of you
had grown to be
I didn’t care
that the neighbors hated you
They didn’t
complain about your warning of the danger of
Door-to-door
salesmen and Jehovah’s witnesses
In fact they
complemented it several times
Besides, at
least you guys were friendly
Our friendly
neighborhood Parrot
Was never
friendly at all
She frequently
would hear the two of you screaming
And yell at you
to shut-up
At least you
guys never talked back
I remember that
my girl goosy
Would sit in my
lap while
My little guy
would sit next to us
You two would
make that little whippoorwill
Noise that
showed everyone your contentment
At being close to
me
I remember that
no one could agree
On names for the
two of you
I thought that
Moses and Oliver were perfectly
Suitable names
Dad wanted the
names to be Hummus and Tubule
You never were
named because of the arguments
That the
conversation always ended in
I remember
thinking that my opinion was
The only one
that mattered
I was the one
who fed and watered you guys
I was the one
who knew how to tell the two of you apart
I was the one
who loved you two
I was the one
who you guys loved back
I was the one
who wanted you to love me back
I remember going
away for a week
And coming back
to find the two of you
Almost doubled
in size
You had gotten
to the awkward teenage stage
Without me
knowing it
You grew up
before me in that one week
But you guys
never forgot who got you that far
I remember
coming home from school and yelling
“MY GOOSES!!”
At the top of my
lungs
The two of you
would come running
From around the
house to great me
I remember the
way you used to shoot down airplanes
With your
sideways glares
And cars
And dogs
And cats
And the mailman
And everything
but me
I especially
remember when one of you lay two eggs
I remember how
hard you were working to lay those eggs
I remember how I
was the only person allowed within a five-foot radius
Of your
nest-site
I remember how
tired you looked afterwards
I remember how
excited I was about
The idea of
being a grandparent
At the ripe old
age of 13
I remember being
the only one excited
I remember the
next morning when
I went to wake
the two of you up
And found
feathers everywhere
I thought maybe
you were in a fight
But that was a
ridiculous idea
I remember
seeing the female laying on the ground
Motionless
I remember the
male trying to pick her up with his bill
I remember
seeing that the feathers had been pulled off
As he tried to
wake you
I remember your
burial
I remember the
next few days when the survivor
Stopped eating
I remember
finding him just as dead as her
I remember
everyone’s odd looks as a said
“My favorite
animal is a goose.”
I remember
having to explain why
I remember doing
so
I remember the
looks of pity from people who never had even met you two
I remember
people saying that that was the worst story they ever heard
I remember
thinking, “You have no idea.”
Recent Comments