The Geese in the Cemetery

 

I live very close to a very old cemetery. Geese live there year-round. Geese are migratory birds, and they’re supposed to fly north in the summer. Not these geese. 

They’ve adapted to life in the cemetery. The manicured lawns provide plenty of grass, and between the old tombstones there are bugs, worms, and everything else a goose could want. They seem quite content there. 

Geese are surprisingly large birds—some can stand nearly four feet tall and weigh around thirty pounds. When you see them walking across the cemetery lawn, they look almost prehistoric. 

Almost every evening at dusk, I see a group of adult geese heading west in a perfect V formation. I don’t know where they go. I don’t know when they return. 

But I do know they have made this quiet cemetery their home. Among the old stones, the grass, and the fading light, they seem to have found a place where they can simply be geese—and live their best life.

 - - Georgia