Our backyard in Kansas on the first of December
The squirrels chase each other around the trunk of the tree. Brown leaves lie in piles in the yard. Beyond the tree line—through which we can see this time of year, now that the leaves have dropped like a curtain—a flock of geese all at once bound down the slope of the bank, rushing toward the water on their flipper-ended, spindly legs, spread their wings, and glide to various points on the surface of the pond where they each alight with a splash landing.