This year’s flotilla of mergansers - jhaffur khan azad darakth

[Larry Robinson]

This year’s flotilla of mergansers 
 
This year’s flotilla of mergansers 
forcing their way against the river’s flow
forms a fine phalanx from bank to bank
each a duck in search, but not for answers
together fit-for-purpose, purely need-to-know
best beaks forwards, only themselves to thank.
 
They are oblivious to the bursting rush of truth 
the bald eagle’s bold incursive fishing scoops 
diving from high limbs of arching sycamore 
to the surface and back with glide so smooth
it circles seeking seams in time, renewing loops
life or death repeated quests for fish from a liquid door. 
 
Rapid ripples show the current’s hidden speed  
against duck down where the cold is puddling
and then the line of ships lifts off into thin air. 
The eagle’s talons threaten those they need
Whose abode under meniscus is puzzling
To the birds and we who have no aquatic flair.
 
We eagles view it all from far away and well above 
we dwell in the ample simple world of surface realities 
So much easier to see reflections of ourselves
then to be immersed in the fluid frenzy where fish find love
or slide untethered beside bass fleets sharing banalities 
those other unseen chapters just remain on other shelves.  
 
And yet the interplay of ducks, both squadrons and armadas
And the rushing touch of air borne eagle scraping water
Show us vents that defy separation and deftly serve
As windows of departure from points of normal view, new vistas
But we so rarely service them, unwilling to rename our alters. 
Ruffled by the wings reverb, the surrounding silence continues to observe.
 
	- jhaffur khan azad darakth