97poems/advice

ADVICE

As I walk
I startle the sandpipers,
feeding at the edge of the lake.
They ascend for safety,
land and begin to feed again,
just north of where they were,
the direction which I am walking.
Clusters of them, in turn,
descend next to the others,
who have just set down,
in a kind of round robin.
I tell them of the error
in their judgment,
but they continue anyway,
against my best advice.

10/24/97