fly away

my son came upon this goose in the shallows of our lake. there was a time not too many years ago, when a son coming upon a goose killed by a snapping turtle would have run back to the house to shout the news. but it’s 2017, and so instead my boy took a photo with his iphone and texted it to us with the commentary, “wtf.” it was a particularly contemporary form of engaging our interest. but interested we were, and the whole family trundled down to the lake to look at this thing we had never seen before. i won’t describe the goose’s injuries except to say that it had clearly dipped its head below the water to eat some weeds, and was never allowed to pull its head back out of the water in this lifetime. i have tried to photograph its beautiful mottled belly and powerful wings in a way it might like to be remembered by. i’d like to think it has good memories of this pose, flapping hard, just over the surface of a flat evening lake, on the way toward sleep.

canada goose killed by snapping turtle

turtle lake, shoreview, minnesota