Goose Feathers

A single goose slumbers in a dead, cold patch of grass next to a parking lot, directly in front of me. Her plume of gray-scaled feathers shimmer in the fluorescent lights. When I flash my car lights, she uncurls her head and looks around frantically for danger. I wish I could tell her that I won't harm her, that the animal instincts for self preservation can be tucked away in the back of her mind because they weren't needed with me near. Then I wonder why she's alone and where the rest of her flock is. Geese aren't usually seen alone, nor should they ever be allowed to be. It just isn't right. I feel sorry for the goose and I wish so much that I could welcome her to the comfort of my car so that she wouldn't have to be alone anymore. But I'm just a human. And she's a goose. Though we may look so different, we are actually just the same. We share the same goals and principles, and even the same situation. The only difference I see between us is that she carries the will and courage to pursue anything her heart desires. I re-think my beginning thoughts about this "lonely" goose. What if I have it all wrong? What if the goose is thinking exactly what I had initially thought about her, but about me? I realize that perhaps she had just stopped there on that frigid grass knowing that I would arrive there at the parking lot. I realize now that it is all reverse. She looks at me and sees the tuneless songbird who needs saving.