APRIL 2, 2023
It’s cold and windy in the prison yard. Beyond the concertina razor wire pastoral farmland awaits April showers in the Treasure Valley. The afternoon sun is peeking under an ominous blanket of black storm clouds threatening to burst. Thousands of yelping snow geese fill the sky, their white wings illuminated by the sunlight, in stark contrast to the looming darkness above.
Off in the distance, they begin to circle. You can feel the electricity in the air. The circling geese form a massive column as big as a big city skyscraper reaching up and into the clouds. It looks like a huge, white tornado as they spiral higher and higher til they all, finally, silently disappear. Straight up, gone. You can picture them continuing their migratory flight north to the Yukon in the tranquil, clear blue sky above the turbulence.
We’re huddled by a cinderblock wall sheltered from the wind when someone starts kicking a hacky sack around. Soon there are a half dozen of us doing our best to keep It going as heavy snow begins to fall and even the snow is also illuminated by the sun peeking under that big black blanket of clouds. | GS
