When I’m a passenger

and he’s driving,
I notice things.

The weather-beaten trees
have turned
green.

The geese are making their way back from wherever they’ve wintered. They file through the sky like traffic, car-honking for their lane. Whichever is up front bears the brunt of wind and navigation, maps imprinted from past voyages. Beyond the landmarks of river and mountain, cryptochrome compasses in goose heads detect the Earth’s magnetic field. North and south discernible. Following the blueness of the day or night.

I read aloud
the street names
on unfamiliar road signs.

His hands hold steady
on the steering wheel.

Geese mate for life.

D. Walsh Gilbert

is the author of Ransom (Grayson Books) and Once the Earth Had Two Moons (forthcoming from Cerasus Poetry Press). A Pushcart Prize nominee and winner of The Ekphrastic Review Bird Watching writing contest (May 2021), she’s currently preparing an all-ekphrastic poetry collection for mid-2022. Her work has recently appeared in Gleam, The Lumiere Review, Black Fox Literary Magazine, Riverbed Review, Peeking Cat Poetry, and the anthology, Waking Up to the Earth: Connecticut Poets in a Time of Global Climate Crisis, among others. She serves on the board of the non-profit, Riverwood Poetry Series, and as co-editor of the Connecticut River Review.