If Only I Moved by Instinct

Life has been a grand migration

to where you are today!

—well known wisdom

I didn’t know!

Otherwise,

when those raggedy squadrons

clamored overhead last evening—

three V’s disarrayed

like frayed arrow feathers,

their leaders insistent as clowns

with braying horns, honking

for plane geometry—

I would have taxied, sprinted,

lifted arthritically

from water’s edge

(granted more dodo than goose,

my splayed toes just scuffing

the webbed crests of waves),

and elbowed my way

into a rhythmic wedge

to claim my slot

in that mindless rotation

toward the life-saving draft.