A Tidings of Magpies

 Wild Geese by Charles Goodrich I'm picking beans when the geese fly over, Blue Lake pole beans I figure to blanch and freeze. Maybe pick some dilly beans. And there will be more beans to give to the neighbors, forcibly if necessary. The geese come over so low I can hear their wings creak, can see their tail feathers making fine adjustments. They slip-stream along so gracefully, riding on each other's wind, surfing the sky. Maybe after the harvest I'll head south. Somebody told me Puerto Vallarta is nice. I'd be happy with a cheap room. Rice and beans at every meal. Swim a little, lay on the beach. Who are you kidding, Charles? You don't like to leave home in the winter. Spring, fall, or summer either. True. But I do love to watch those wild geese fly over, feel these impertinent desires glide through me. Then get back to work.

of Gathering and Keeping Fruit by William Lawson "Although it be an easie matter, when God shall send it to gather and keep fruit, yet are there certain things worthy your regard: you must gather your fruit when it is ripe and not before, else it will wither and be tough and sour. All fruits generally are ripe when they begin to fall: for trees as all other bearers do, when their young ones are ripe, they will wain them. The dove her pidgeons, the coney her rabbits, and women their children." there are cycles to which are we are chained despite what our minds will us to do i need to clean, i actually want to clean. with one babe away at school and her sister three years to follow, i need to clear our surroundings of the remnants of their flurried growth. so fast it’s gone. before i could clear my eyes from the wonder of their sweet bald heads and feet no bigger than my palm, they are off and running in the time it takes to clear a throat and ask, “what do you think of this,” ...