Mallard’s Dream Song
I have been twice aboard the quivering dock
Made of wicker and twine:
Where time is set free of clock’s steady ticking.
I twice saw the quacking green mallard
Washing in quaggy water with the lily flowers.
And my second visit there, since coming whole,
Having come alone: (wearing no fair company but my own)
I asked this poor fowl:
From where he had come
And what he had known.
Of course, the wave of the wind was wet and blunt
And the fond aura of a waning moon was dull and broken
Where it shown below the surface pond.
I had of late wished to keep her long company
Where the mold and soft moss could cover my eyes as gauze.
I admit, that night the goddess’s mermaid glow
Was as pleasing as shadows on autumn’s snow.
