The Knight of the Stone Duck

We are the Queen’s exiles, you with
Unblinking eyes and motionless wings,
Bill open in an infinite quack.

I see how life is for you, sir!

Little better than a garden gnome
Powerless against those who left you
To the travails of every season
To crack and weather like any old stone.

How can I but battle for anger that
You cannot express, with the pebbles
You call companions! Just one toss
And I could break the barriers between
The worlds, and you might take flight,
Rejoicing in every whistle and quack
Sounding from your breast!

I enter the field of your gaze
And your eyes give me the strength
Of a mammoth fighting a tribe of hunters!
So I throw, but misjudge. And
Nothing breaks but my mother’s peace.

Her face appears at the window,
Eyes like searchlights peering through
Night’s gloom. They light upon you,
But I am long gone, for I have fled,
Taking the coward’s gate to the park.