Migrations

Autumn and geese depart from me
and frostbit chill for southern skies,
for fields of corn, of ripening beans.
I should go too, but cannot fly
these frostbit limbs to southern skies.
I stay behind, feet firm on land;
I would go too, but can I fly?
Not being so much goose as man,
I run behind, feet lift and land.
Go on ahead I call, and yearn
for being so much goose as man.
Yet each will migrate; all in turn
go on ahead.  I honk, and yearn
******for fields of corn,
*****************of ripened beans.
Yes,
******each
************will migrate
*************************in his turn;
*******************autumn
***********and geese
******depart with
me.

Ted Charnley’s work has appeared in multiple issues of such journals as Passager, The Road Not Taken, Think, The Lyric, and The Orchards Poetry Journal.  He lives with his wife in a 200-year old farmhouse they restored in central Maryland.