VIGIL Gray goose, yellow-footed, preening, stroking feathers, surveys Rose Island, a brief stop-- hungry. Sleek neck, black wings fold in, joining gaggle members' quick harvesting sweet salt-tinged grass, resting. Moon rise, wind drop, dead calm. Hunkered down, birds curl beaks into wing pockets; tail feathers rustle. Awake, stiff legs unbend. East sun swings high, six honk goodbye, Rose Island Light, one stays-- haunting. Roof slate, red brick, old glass, Fresnel's one eye turning. Keepers' ghosts, tied to Rose, lift off, less one. --- S. A. Utterback

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About the author, Shirley Utterback: Words, language, books have always fascinated Shirley Utterback. Her love for them was a gift from her mother who opened the magical door to reading and literature for her while she was growing up in the Seattle area. Poetry became her new love in the 1970s, while talking courses for an English degree from URI, received in 1975. An old love had been newspapers--editor of her high school newspaper, a journalism major at the University of Washington in 1940s. Marriage and five children delayed her degree until she moved to Rhode Island in 1966. She was a news office assistant for the Providence Journal for 18 years, writing features, community news events, obituaries and a weekly library column. She has been attending poetry workshops for several years in Barrington and has been a member of the Conanicut Poets' Workshop in Jamestown for six years.

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