Ducks

From troubles of the world I turn to ducks,

Beautiful comical things

Sleeping or curled

Their heads beneath white wings

By water cool,

Or finding curious things

To eat in various mucks

Beneath the pool,

Tails uppermost, or waddling

Sailor-like on the shores

Of ponds, or paddling

- Left! Right! - with fanlike feet

Which are for steady oars

When they (white galleys) float

Each bird a boat

Rippling at will the sweet

Wide waterway…

When night is fallen you creep

Upstairs, but drakes and dillies

Nest with pale water-stars.

Moonbeams and shadow bars,

And water-lilies:

Fearful too much to sleep

Since they've no locks

To click against the teeth

Of weasel and fox.

And warm beneath

Are eggs of cloudy green

Whence hungry rats and lean

Would stealthily suck

New life, but for the mien

The hold ferocious mien

Of the mother-duck.



II



Yes, ducks are valiant things

On nests of twigs and straws,

And ducks are soothy things

And lovely on the lake

When that the sunlight draws

Thereon their pictures dim

In colours cool.

And when beneath the pool

They dabble, and when they swim

And make their rippling rings,

0 ducks are beautiful things!

But ducks are comical things:-

As comical as you.

Quack!

They waddle round, they do.

They eat all sorts of things,

And then they quack.

By barn and stable and stack

They wander at their will,

But if you go too near

They look at you through black

Small topaz-tinted eyes

And wish you ill.

Triangular and clear

They leave their curious track

In mud at the water's edge,

And there amid the sedge

And slime they gobble and peer

Saying 'Quack! quack!'



III



When God had finished the stars and whirl of coloured suns

He turned His mind from big things to fashion little ones;

Beautiful tiny things (like daisies) He made, and then

He made the comical ones in case the minds of men

Should stiffen and become

Dull, humourless and glum,

And so forgetful of their Maker be

As to take even themselves - quite seriously.

Caterpillars and cats are lively and excellent puns:

All God's jokes are good - even the practical ones!

And as for the duck, 1 think God must have smiled a bit

Seeing those bright eyes blink on the day He fashioned it.

And he's probably laughing still at the sound that came out of its

bill!

