The Sunday Poem: Pondering a Duck

Pondering a Duck, Ueno Gardens, Tokyo

Say you have a duck, and the duck is daring,
A frantic quacking fowl that disturbs the water’s peace.
Would it pick a quarrel with placid turtles drowsing?
Would it raise a ruckus and disturb the carp asleep?

Of course it would. Some critters quack whole days away,
Heedless of the peace a summer garden brings.
They cannot help but lack the sense to meditate,
Their temper dragging them from windy cry to whim.

Compare, contrast, the carp beneath,
Always moving, never loud.
They gape their mouths to beg for food,
But do not bellow when they crowd.

Above them sit the lily pads, the waterstriding bugs,
The people at their temples, the tourists on their days.
The lake itself enduring, patient, with towers ‘round it rung.
The duck you see, just visits. The turtle comes to pray.