Mama Duck (Part 2)

Mama Duck (Part 2)

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Mighty magic is a mother ...
                                              ---Creeley
---

What better mother can be
... than this?
                                          ---barbsdad
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Mama just stood there, anchored by
downstreaming water like some kind
of sentry heron with weirdly
truncated legs.

And no effort was required of her
other than to lock her solid
footing against the obviously
refreshing cool currents.

It was a most amazing sight:

While she held herself practically
as still as a scarecrow in
a farmer's cornfield---

with only her head from time to time
turning to quick-scan roundabout---

her hardworking miniature
quackers, her younglings,
their statures being much too
abbreviated to even tag the riverbed,
let alone hold themselves upright
while doing so, swam furiously!---
undaunted, in eerie silence---
to keep abreast of standstill Mama.

Two single-filed closely on her
left, two more on her right,
and the last pair---in tandem,
like twin bouncy corks in a tub---
were nearly jostling her tail
feathers.

Seen as one unit, it was as if
Mama wore a skirt decorated
with six flaring tassels that
floated, with apparent strong
resolve, on the rollicking
river surface---

and each tassel
had two feisty paddle-feet
dedicated to holding it at its
allotted station.

It wasn't just the seemingly
random shifts and fluxes of
the river's routing that
the stunningly energetic babies
negoatiated so valiantly;

the two bringing up the rear
in particular faced a series
of complicated double and
triple whammies.

First was the challenge of
the flow itself; then were
the whirling vortexes in
Mama's wake, miniwhirlpools---

in bursting surges---

that formed out of roiling passage
of sprightly waters around
and between Mama's knobbed
knees and ankles.

And even what swirled over
and around the tops of her
spread-wide, gripping feet---
and the irregular river bottom.

Not to mention what sluiced
by and under her feathered
body proper.

"I am quite impressed with
you, you know," I ventured.
"In fact, I think you're some
kind of genius."

"Explain that for me, please,"
Mama urged.

With a hint of coy, she added,
"Not that it's any of my
business, of course."

(to be continued)