bad for the gander – a tale from the news, by the Haibun Pundit
She had me up at sunrise making “Save the Geese” signs. This must be penance for ogling that waitress with the great legs last weekend. Instead of picnicking, we’re spending a hot and humid Memorial Day on a picket line, on about the only shadeless stretch of road in the Village of Scotia, New York.
Back in 1989, a pair of Canadian geese were brought from a state game farm to our nature preserve. As the flock grew, we’d bring the kids to see them on Collins Lake — sitting on that knoll that’s covered in bird shit today. “Which ones are coming, Daddy?” . . . “Which are going?” . . . “Which ones live here?” By now, almost two hundred of them are considered “resident birds,” staying until the 50-acre Lake is frozen and coming back in the Spring
The beetle I righted
flies straight into
a cobweb
Most Scotians love the idea of hosting those honking immigrants, but there’s so much goose excrement around Collins Park, no one wants their children to play here, and the Lake and beach had to be closed last summer. Still, the Wife and her Geese-Savers want to stop Mayor McLaughlin from euthanizing part of the flock. They say it’s inhumane and he hasn’t tried hard enough the past ten years to use nonlethal methods — like border collies and noise-makers, and the always-mysterious “egg-addling”.
Except for that one guy with the graying pony tail and Birkenstocks, who keeps trying to start those lame cheers, every male on this line — from 8 to 80 — looks dispirited, drafted, drug-here. It wasn’t enough that I gave up hunting geese years ago, to please her and the kids. Now I’m spending a perfectly good holiday baking my buns on the pavement, not grilling burgers in the backyard. Her crusade has become mine.
There is one consolation: my sweaty face and “Kinky Friedman” t-shirt embarrass the crap out of her.
a spider spirals
down the drain —
the cricket keeps singing
– haibun by dagosan (with thanks to George Swede for “the beetle”) —
In the News, see:
– – “Protesters reacting to decision to gas Canada geese” (CapitalNews9, May 28, 2006) “The clock is ticking for 150 Canada Geese in Scotia, and residents are rallying against plans to exterminate the birds. The village is planning to control the geese population in Collins Park by trapping, and then gassing them. Officials approved the plan and said it’s the only way to stop the birds from contaminating the pond. But members of a group called, “Save the Geese in Scotia” said the plan amounts to cruelty to animals [and that “proven nonlethal management techniques are more effective and humane”.] . . . “Protestors also said that instead of killing the geese they should be relocated. However, that approach would not be legal under current-state law.”
– – See the story as it unfolded and continued at Jerry Moore’s School Talk website.
guest haijin:
clouds of pollen
drifting through sunbeams —
a sparrow’s sudden flight
the web between stumps —
a tree frog answers
the pond frog
a white swan shakes her tail
at last the ripples
reach her mate
stones on the trail . . .
a downy feather
wafts in the breeze
by Michael Dylan Welch from Thornewood Poems at Captain Haiku’s Secret Hangout.
droping stone after stone
into the lake I keep
reappearing
seventeen
starlings on the telephone wire
sixteen
George Swede from Almost Unseen
* Don’t forget #59, the special Memorial Day edition of Blawg Review, hosted by their very own Edit.