by David K. Wheeler

With geese returning home,
I stand in open field and watch.

Observe the bend in their ranks.
Chart a flight suggesting south

across a stationary gray drop
where aerials keep parallax

with nothing but stratosphere.
The air turns on its axis.

I trace my path home in grass.
Wear wind like a sou’wester.

Add breath to a roof of clouds,
offer my lungs as a solstice rite—

frost climbs from alveoli to tongue
from field to stoop of my home.

David K. Wheeler’s debut poetry collection, Contingency Plans was published by TS Poetry Press. His other writing has appeared in The Morning News, The Gay & Lesbian Review, TOSKA Magazine, Paradise Review, and others. He earned his BA in Creative Writing from Western Washington University, and now lives in Seattle.