Flocks elegant of wood ducks smoothly skim
Lake Maxinkuchee like hard buoyantly afloat
Wooden toys; a glide so gracious, in unmoving rhythm,
That heartless inanimate Nature must gloat
At the seeming power, effortless, controlled,
It exerts over its country creatures all around ,
That with their striking breathing beauty bold
Can look cold as art and senses confound.
But poet author breathe quacking life in
To fantastical sketches, skeletons of thought
Crafted of immaterial fabrics, whimsy thin ,
Till whole world peopled is wide loved and sought.
Tell me one day if you like reality on edge of knife,
For even art’s wood ducks stiff as toys take on life.
“Lake Maxinkuchee” was printed in Tracks, No. 9 of Inwood Indiana. Pick up the paperback from Prolific Press; the stories and poems published online are free to read here.
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