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 arthriticly
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.