King Duck

Anna Jackson

Against the wind, hair streaming behind us,
we have to shout to say anything at all.

I can't believe what I just said to you!
You couldn't have heard, to agree like that

and still keep climbing upwards,
but I see you are not talking to me –

you're talking to a pair of ducks.
I think you are frightening them.

Faster and faster they waddle up the track
until suddenly they are soaring in the sky,

circling us with wild cries,
as beautiful as any swans.

The wind suddenly dies
and you wait for me to catch you up.

Did you see that? you ask me,
as if I might have seen something else,

wherever I go those ducks are following me!
(I didn't see that.) I am King Duck,

you tell me. You promise if I stay with you
you will bring ducks into my life,

and around the corner, there
they suddenly alight.