11 july 2021

By Philip Kuepper

I shared my morning with an American black
duck, who was already present
before I arrived. So it was she
who shared her space with me,
she, standing on a rock in the shallows,
I, sitting abench overlooking the bay.
With one incoming wave she slid,
gracefully, into the water,
and floated as one with the element
that glistened round her, a liquid
field of diamonds. I baked on the bench,
even with a breeze shirting my back,
I never accepted by the elements,
as she was.

(7 July 2021)