Flyaway

(Winter in town)
October 13, 1976

(1)
Before the bar closes
I stumble up the hill alone.
The whole town is asleep.

Geese crying in the night sky
wake me out of my drunkenness
into the ancient pathway
given to us
before we had minds.

I am the brother of geese
On my bare arms
long ago
there were feathers.

(2)
Fly at night,
dark sky under your wings.
Sing with your brothers
and
fear no hunter.

Let me hear
over the sea of feathers
that song
carried on in the night,

wave after wave
rising out of the silence, going on--

same song
same silence
as I rise into the sky,
this white feather glowing in my mouth.

-- Robert Sund, La Conner