Julie Chibbaro

Black Geese Battle

I get up at dawn because I have to get up at dawn but it's 8 in the a.m.
because now dawn comes at 8 and the geese are hacking though they've
been hacking for two hours because they're usually used to dawn at 6
and I didn't hear them but I dreamt of them so maybe I heard them but
don't do anything about it until I kick the covers off my feet and finally
go to yell them away because I'm sick of geese hacking and waking me
up before I'm ready to get up which is at 8 because now dawn comes at 8.

Their freaking crazy hacking stirs up the other animals around the pond
especially the ravens who don't like to be messed with but are because
the geese won't shut up though I scream at them too but they're nuts and
do what they want no matter how many pan tops I bang into their faces
which come up to my knees and snap at me like vicious dogs even though
they're not dogs though they don't seem to know it or care about anyone
but themselves.

Beaks start going poking at eyes and the ravens have it because their
beaks are pointy and big and they come up to my knees too and I don't
want to get in the middle but feel I should referee because I really don't
want to get down in morning guts and clean them up not to mention
feathers and blood the way it sometimes goes with these feuds because
birds can be fierce and fight to the death and their meat isn't good to eat
not like chicken so I try my whistle but it just seems to get them irritated
more and they go wacking and hacking at each other in high surprised cries.

The gang's all come from either side to fly into the unfair fight with wings
spreading and whooshing up dried leaves and there's haggle and hassle
abounding left and right front and back of me though I try to stop it and
get nipped in the knees for my effort and it's a good thing I have on my
rubber protector boots or I know it would really hurt because these birds
have no sympathy when they're angry and don't hold back on their bites
which mystifies me since I don't know what they're arguing about because
I can't speak bird though I've tried but that was in the old days when I
thought nature was a well oiled wheel but I've since come to my senses
about that myth dealing with these geese.