Natural Symmetry

The restaurant juts above the pond, 
casting lucent shadows in those moments 
that fall still between dinner and dark. 
Reflections luminesce against the faces 
lingering above the clutter from the meal. 
Through the window, those faces seem to grow 
brighter, glowing against the diminished light. 

A clatter and darkening flurry in the sky 
as thirty geese wheel above the water 
and come around low, turning in concert 
to touch the pond’s reflective surface, down 
in formation, trailing a welter of ripples and wakes. 

The diners gawk, talk stops, their mouths fall 
open in dark circles of wonder-black 
daubs on white smears behind the broad 
panes-as if they had all inspired together 
and held their breath, like a chorus expecting a downbeat,
face to face with the indifferent music of nature, 
and still they find a single note to sing.