The geese who live year-round
at the pond stroll calmly close,
their plump bodies elegantly oval.

I watch them waddle
on the frozen surface,
unfazed, sliding seldom.

The chance of a wide webbed foot
plunging through thin ice
is a risk they accept, simply part
of living through another winter.

The geese know they are already cold
and can swim just fine in freezing water.

They don’t waste
a sacred moment of sunshine
fearing what might happen next.

Jacqueline Jules is the author of Manna in the Morning (Kelsay Books, 2021), Itzhak Perlman’s Broken String, winner of the 2016 Helen Kay Chapbook Prize from Evening Street Press, and Smoke at the Pentagon: Poems to Remember (Bushel & Peck, 2023). Her poetry has appeared in over 100 journals. Visit her online at http://www.jacquelinejules.com