becoming goose


go sit with your knees in the water
retracting your arms and tucking them
along your side

your upper body running over your thighs
like a heavy sauce

paddling with your feet
until you slowly come up

sticking out your neck and sawing up
your front teeth

shoulder blades no longer the limit

the neck higher still
until you can look out over yourself

bobbing and hoarsely screaming
that you're a guardian

and behind all this
knowing you can get away

that you can take this body with you
step by step upward
to the turnstile of the sky
 

it's not your thoughts that rise
it's the wind that changes direction
the leaf that plops into the water next to you
the nest that forms in your belly

your unborn children who know
when it's time to go