<div style="font-size:10pt;font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif;color:black;">As said above, pieces due. <br><br>This poem has been posted on the party line, but I want a more thorough critique.<br><br><font face="Times New Roman" size="3">
</font><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><font face="Times New Roman"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><font size="3"> </font></span><font size="3">I Know Wherefore the
Goose Protects<br> by<br> Leonard Tuchyner<br></font></font></p><font face="Times New Roman" size="3">
</font><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><o:p><font face="Times New Roman" size="3"> </font></o:p></p><font face="Times New Roman" size="3">
</font><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="3">Across the earthen dam</font></p><font face="Times New Roman" size="3">
</font><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="3">lies a beleaguered beaver lodge,</font></p><font face="Times New Roman" size="3">
</font><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="3">built by beaver diligence</font></p><font face="Times New Roman" size="3">
</font><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="3">and destroyed by human hands.</font></p><font face="Times New Roman" size="3">
</font><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="3">Natural and human habitat</font></p><font face="Times New Roman" size="3">
</font><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="3">contend for ascendancy,</font></p><font face="Times New Roman" size="3">
</font><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="3">on shores and waters of this lake.</font></p><font face="Times New Roman" size="3">
</font><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><o:p><font face="Times New Roman" size="3"> </font></o:p></p><font face="Times New Roman" size="3">
</font><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="3">Peaceful flows breech this lodge,</font></p><font face="Times New Roman" size="3">
</font><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="3">streaming softly to the brook beyond.</font></p><font face="Times New Roman" size="3">
</font><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="3">Overflowing spillway waters</font></p><font face="Times New Roman" size="3">
</font><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="3">quell the angry gods of flooding.</font></p><font face="Times New Roman" size="3">
</font><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><o:p><font face="Times New Roman" size="3"> </font></o:p></p><font face="Times New Roman" size="3">
</font><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="3">A blackened, rickety wharf,</font></p><font face="Times New Roman" size="3">
</font><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="3">obscured by tall weeds and grasses,</font></p><font face="Times New Roman" size="3">
</font><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="3">projects its gnarly form crookedly --</font></p><font face="Times New Roman" size="3">
</font><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="3">an ancient, shriveled caretaker,</font></p><font face="Times New Roman" size="3">
</font><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="3">ministering to this heirloom lake.</font></p><font face="Times New Roman" size="3">
</font><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><o:p><font face="Times New Roman" size="3"> </font></o:p></p><font face="Times New Roman" size="3">
</font><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="3">May is a time for brooding.</font></p><font face="Times New Roman" size="3">
</font><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><font face="Times New Roman"><font size="3">A small flock of <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Canada</st1:place></st1:country-region></font><font size="3"> geese</font></font></p><font face="Times New Roman" size="3">
</font><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="3">plies the lake for sustenance.</font></p><font face="Times New Roman" size="3">
</font><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="3">One quiet goose on water’s edge,</font></p><font face="Times New Roman" size="3">
</font><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="3">keeping her clutch warm and secure,</font></p><font face="Times New Roman" size="3">
</font><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="3">hides meekly in her stillness.</font></p><font face="Times New Roman" size="3">
</font><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><o:p><font face="Times New Roman" size="3"> </font></o:p></p><font face="Times New Roman" size="3">
</font><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="3">My approach breeches her comfort zone.</font></p><font face="Times New Roman" size="3">
</font><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="3">She quacks a temperate alarm.</font></p><font face="Times New Roman" size="3">
</font><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="3">On the lake, the flock erupts into</font></p><font face="Times New Roman" size="3">
</font><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="3">a cacophony of barks and brays.</font></p><font face="Times New Roman" size="3">
</font><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="3">Up the bank, her valiant mate charges,</font></p><font face="Times New Roman" size="3">
</font><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="3">splashing, flapping, driving me back --</font></p><font face="Times New Roman" size="3">
</font><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="3">an allosaurus on the attack.</font></p><font face="Times New Roman" size="3">
</font><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="3">I retreat, protecting life and limb.</font></p><font face="Times New Roman" size="3">
</font><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><o:p><font face="Times New Roman" size="3"> </font></o:p></p><font face="Times New Roman" size="3">
</font><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="3">In his fury, I hear him say,</font></p><font face="Times New Roman" size="3">
</font><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="3">“This little lake we come to spawn,</font></p><font face="Times New Roman" size="3">
</font><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="3">Is a refuge from a dying world,</font></p><font face="Times New Roman" size="3">
</font><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="3">surrounded by your destructive greed.</font></p><font face="Times New Roman" size="3">
</font><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="3">Have you not taken more than enough? </font></p><font face="Times New Roman" size="3">
</font><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="3">Leave us, please, this tiny island </font></p><font face="Times New Roman" size="3">
</font><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="3">that I’m willing to spend my life for.”</font></p><font face="Times New Roman" size="3">
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