Flight Formation

Sights and sounds of a season,
forest foliage hovering on the crest
of one, bidding its farewell to the other
subtly turning colour, wan green on its
way to brilliant orange initiating the
journey from tree branch to forest
floor, early fall wildflowers nudged
by night frosts, declining the
invitation to shrivel and waste.

Whispers of wings departed, song
birds gone, wild geese beginning
their formation of flight south
calling to laggards below.  The
deafening roar that invades the
cloisters of trees lingering in the cool
denseness of greens reverberating in
the leaf-muffled atmosphere.  Sound

encompasses, its domination set
in the fury of metal and jet engines;
receding, fainter then silence only to
swoop back through the sky in yet
another formation of flight not of
nature's changing seasons, but of
precise military technology.

We see in a brief window of
forest canopy yielding to clear a
brief glory of bright blue sky, not
the 'V' formation of the Canada geese
renewing their flight from winter but
Canadian snowbirds commemorating
Canadian WWII pilots performing
during the wintry Battle of Britain.