date: 2019-08-19 weight: 5
I
Geese Level:
Unnerving
Expect:
Anxiety
A hundred geese overhead —
A thousand —
A million —
Heady scent of premonition.
Acrid tang of ill omens.
Portents.
Too much meaning
In too small a space.
II
Geese Level:
Noise-Cancelling Headphones
Expect:
auditory aberrations
Geese are a byproduct of laminar shear stress
Of two layers of phantasmagorical
Newtonian fluids,
Which is why they’re often seen on a plane.
A thin, sort-of Truth
From a sort of thin layer
geese chromatography.
III
Geese Level:
Eldrich
Expect:
red tint to vision; hot flashes
As the dove bears the olive branch,
so too the goose bears the wand
that withers all it touches.
A wand of nightshade,
Core of tainted silver.
A wand of obscure origin,
The goose surely stole it.
Malice begets malice.
IV
Geese Level:
Beyond Comprehension
Expect:
confusion; nausea; sweating; racing pulse
We know not the transgression,
the origin -
We know not the punishment,
only the terror.
V
Geese Level:
Excruciating
Expect:
pounding heart; tunnel vision; racing thoughts; black outs;
blood pouring from ears
Geas
Wing
Dark
Horizon
VI
Geese Level:
Terrifying
Expect:
tinnitus; piloerection; shortness of breath; uneven gait
I’d rather owls.
Owls, as though geese were turned inside out,
made less evil.
Still portentous,
Still momentous,
Just less terrifying.
Owls are okay.
I can think about owls.
VII
Geese Level:
Uncomfortable
Expect:
subdermal itching; formication
Life within a comfortable grid.
Parallel lines
Interrupting narrowing circles
Of birds in flight.
Travel in straight lines.
Turn at right angles.
Trace the roof of your mouth
With wet tongue.
I’m not afraid of geese anymore
Because I can step on them now.
I’m big enough.
VIII
Geese Level:
Birds
Expect:
birds
Ritual thinking
Driven by geese —
By lines, by grids, by food —
By numbers and neat delineation.
And I’m left with questions:
Why the portents?
Why the anxiety?
Or maybe:
Did I take my meds this morning?
Failing that,
Can I just have the comfort of prayer
Or the ecstasy of signs
Without bleak paranoia
Over circling birds?