Truckers' and Others Poems & Poetry

It is the first of February I have been driving through the night. At sunrise I get through the light traffic of Little Rock Arkansas on I-40, and sun is rising before me. Not too far down the highway in the distance, the silhouette of geese brushing the sunrise. It is seven AM and geese are on the move in large flocks. The sky is alive with broken formations of thousands and thousands of waterfowl. Wave after wave of wings in flight with a feeling of never-stopping forcefulness in each pump of paired wings, yet so full of grace as each leader moves them on. There are so many birds in flight that it affects my perception of the true color of the sky.

The countryside between Little Rock, Arkansas and Memphis, Tennessee gave me a feeling of seeing a great basin, or delta. Large open fields of rice and other grains long since harvested with lots of ponds, ditches and shallow- standing water dots the fields in ruts left behind by combines’ winding tracks. Within this wintering sanctuary was a rice field being gleaned by countless numbers of geese. A truly majestic sight, for it was at least eighty percent beautiful white snow geese against a background of rice stocks and reflecting shallow water.

Driving farther down I-40, I see a coyote full of nervousness crossing a field in search of an easy meal.
This is a majestic day to be remembered. I have not seen geese in these numbers since I was a small boy. It gave a feeling, a sense, a harbinger of a change in the winds; that there are new and wonderful things to come.
I find myself looking forward to this amazing year.

I hear change in the winds
Saying it’s slowly coming back again
Thinking of all the places that I’ve been
What a majestic day this has been
Change in the winds

Traveling around in this big white truck, I have come to realize that America is a land of exceptions. The majestic marvel of the land is still there, and always ready and willing to regenerate in the winds that shape the land.

D. Botzek © 2/09/09