THE DWARF DUCK CHRONICLES

 

    This is Dwarf Duck of Boiling Springs Lake. I first noticed him in early March of this year, thinking at first he was a juvenile, but then realizing that he was an adult who simply never grew to full mallard size. I like his "snub beak." Other than that, it's hard to tell he is a dwarf from this photo.

   
    This photo was taken on April 20th. I was at the lake on April 13th, but I didn't see Dwarf Duck and got worried I killed him with the bread I fed him two weeks earlier.
   

     Joy informed me that you shouldn't actually feed ducks bread, as it can make them sick or even be fatal, so I started feeding them peas or corn after that. The peas worked pretty well, but a lot of the peas just sank to the bottom of the lake.
     The next time I tried corn. My participant liked that; he had a whole bag of frozen corn and it lasted him for awhile. That was the day when it all went down, but more on that later... This is Dwarf Duck's time in the sun and I shan't take it from him.

     This is the full fleet of ducks in their glory. I can't see Dwarf Duck in this picture... in fact, I don't think he's in it. Anyone who finds him gets a prize.
     This is how many ducks you can get in a group if you feed them bread. Note: don't feed them bread. They do love it, but don't feed them bread. You may get the best duck crowd ever, but don't feed them bread.
     This is a good duck day in terms of numbers and attention. If you go on a sunny day, they may not be as hungry because they've already been fed by 20 people before you.

     Dwarf Duck appeared to be accepted by the group when I visited the lake in March. This photo shows him clearly morphed by a larger mallard pair, but still in proximity of the other ducks and seemingly in tandem.

     These next three pics were actually taken on March 16th, the second time I encountered DD. This is the time I fed them bread and made a lot of friends. I kept telling my participant to feed the ducks that were friendliest and not getting any other morsels but he kept ignoring me.

      I like how Dwarf Duck appears to be leading the pack here. Leading them where I have no guess; probably some sort of futile oblivion. But, they're ducks, they're not very smart, they appear to be following that wily pied piper. 

     This was DD in his heyday, no doubt, consorting amongst his peers and being a Duck among ducks.











     Here's Dwarf Duck commanding the front lines. Looking perhaps a little out of sorts, I suppose. The other male appears to be eyeballing him pretty good. Knowing the nature of ducks, size and brawn tends to rule the roost. DD will not edify and enlighten the other ducks with his intellect. No, he will in fact become a waddling and reclusive derelict in due time. Par for the course in Duckville, but DD is of the special sort.

     Commanding the front lines for one day was Dwarf Duck, but the true lines had yet to be drawn...for, we had yet to encounter...

THE DAY IT ALL WENT DOWN 

May 10, 2018

     It appeared to be a normal calm Thursday afternoon at the duck lake. They were a little bloated from earlier feeds, but they eventually took an interest in the corn. The first neat thing I encountered was this fleet of ten ducklings following mother out into the open water.
     I was watching the fish a lot, too. It looked like they had recently been stocked. It was fun to watch the ducklings take little dives, ostensibly at fish, or to jettison across the water to catch up to the group, as stray ducklings are sometimes wont to do. But, nothing too out of the ordinary occurred, until I started looking around a little bit more, and noticed who was there behind me, taking shelter under the rack of canoes, but...
     DWARF DUCK!

     I became sad soon after. Dwarf duck appeared to have been ostracized from the group and was now becoming a lazy recluse. Either that or he was feeling sick. He had very little energy that day and moved very little.

     I wondered in earnest if he had in fact become outcast and despondent. It was strange how Darwinism's sometimes cruel nature seemed to affect even ducks. He was a fine specimen, he just didn't fit in to the scheme of Duckville. He didn't stack up to the other males and may have been in a few altercations, perhaps even injured.




     Then, I began to feel some redemption when I noticed that DD was not the only duck taking shelter under the canoes. It appeared he had a friend after all, whom I called "Suzy Duck."

     I was glad to see Dwarf Duck and Suzy had formed an alliance, but unbeknownst to me (and apparently Dwarf Duck as well), Suzy was about to experience a sad chapter in her own story. In the meantime, other duck tales began to arrest my attention and it became a momentous day indeed at Boiling Springs Lake over the course of the next 30 minutes.

DUCK TALES, WOO-OO !

I wanted to study some of the other "normal" ducks to contrast Dwarf Duck's situation, so I took a few photos of this pristine group of three--two sterling males and their comely counterpart--appearing to be going for a good-natured stroll out on the green. 

 

However,this duck tale would soon turn sordid. The male with his head down in the top photo was sizing up his unwitting opponent, whom he would soon attack and provoke into a serious, feather-flying altercation and dispute for dominance.





It turned into more than a short squabble. These guys appeared really out to hurt one another and went at it for several minutes.

It was turning out to be quite an eventful day at the duck lake, and clearly some lines were being drawn.

The fight even continued into the water, where it went down for another few minutes.

Eventually it subsided, but at least one male ended up with a seriously bloodied head. On the up side, he did get the girl, though. 

But, perhaps his bravado just drove her away again. 

It's hard to say in Duckville. 

      I turned my attention back to Dwarf Duck and Suzy, shortly after the squabble subsided. These two unassuming fellows here, perched in front of the boats, appeared to be in a typical duck daze, and I assumed pals of Suzy's. She started walking away from Dwarf Duck towards them, and I thought: Oh, now even Suzy is ditching DD to be with her other friends. However, there was quite a surprise in store for me (and Suzy as well, we would think!). I have heard that the duck mating process is rather feisty, but had never encountered it in vivo before. Female duck netherparts are actually labyrinthine in shape, making it virtually impossible for any appendage to permeate the maze. The exceptional appendage happens to belong to none other than the duck male, and is approximately the shape of a corkscrew. Etymologists may note the possible origin of the term "cork" here, it should be noted. 

     And then the hurlyburly behind the fence began. It was funny to me how it was literally behind the picket fence. The ducks appear to be on lookout here, ready to stave off any potential detractors. Dwarf Duck remained on the left side of the fence and was not a witness to the proceedings. This duck-duck-goose convoy appeared to be oblivious to me watching them, also. Nothing was going to stand in the way of this party.

Suzy was being violated on many levels, but Dwarf Duck remained behind the fence, apparently oblivious. 

It was turning into a depressing series of events in Duckville. I began to ruminate cynically and curse  primal and cruel nature. It appeared all was lost. Seeming to confirm my dark conclusions, the next event I encountered saw a stray duckling call out her pathetic quack to her estranged flock. In her vulnerable state, she was even divebombed (no picture captured) by one of the opportunist adults. 

I began to wonder what her fate would be. Would she be beaten by one of the adults, sucked down by a stray muskellunge, left to frenetically fend for herself for the rest of her traumatic short ass lifespan?

She swam around in circles near shore some more, continuing to cry out pathetically, while the group continued to gain gradual distance out into the expanse of lake.

But alas, she made one great jettison across the water in the right direction, skittering with ostensibly all her might, and was recognized by the group and reunited once more!

There would be redemption by sundown and opportunities for more "duck tales" tomorrow. All was not lost indeed. So, if you ever feel the need to chronicle a duck tale of your own, cop a squat nearby the lake and watch nature in motion. Who knows, Dwarf Duck may even turn up again sometime!

Poems

"The Day"
  Transactions equal little more than dollars and cents
When no one does love you in the romantical sense
Knowing it doesn't change it--
A simple band-aid doesn't fix it--
And to be clear and rational amounts to shit--
I'm ashamed that I need help from you
That I can learn so much from you
And expand my perspective through you
Fearful that you don't respect me
Take me seriously and see through to my insecurity
So it's an untenable situation, knowing
There's no purity in this relation, hoping
The empathy I have known
The insight I have grown
Came only from being alone, alone
But in a moment realized--beneficence
And I've tried to plod onwards and upwards ever since
Some force must be watching over me some way
Some one is helping me to make it all the way
Through the day

"Palomino" 
It dawned on me that I once had a fish on the line
A big promising fish, all gills and indignation,
an amazing alarum
Its pulse heightened mine, and I never set the line
Couldn't think about that hook in the mouth
And before I could breathe, it spat it plumb out
I caught a good one too and released it, 
Sent it off on its wounded way
Shaking me off with its implacable shimmy
Now I see time hasn't changed a thing
As others pole forever for the perfect catch
Not afraid to wear their bait on their hats

But that Palomino's swim won't ever cease
Behind the lattice-fence, just a shimmer of gold
Designed to elude, and give us over to fantasy, what will never be...
(Oh, could it be, the hidden sea, under umbrage promontory,
Foamy splash of body swath, traces of gold in shadows pass)
Nothing left but an overtread path,
Carapacing leaves and branches black

“Surrounded By Windows”

 Waterfalling under me
Disbelief of the reality
That I'm cascading thinly through
into your full view  
Moving in small gestures
As fresh as gum crystals
Goosebumps and flushed skin
together in our shared daydream
--your scent among me--
--your breath upon me--
I muffle and press you
you giggle beneath me
Our voices vibrate
Hair flecks tickle
And summer is far outside

  “The New Year” or “Keystone XL”

Endowed with feeling and family-fed
Unhaste the pace, the reapers be in place
At traffic stops the cops unfurl the mops
And smear the blood-stained buck for pops
Crossed paths with a tool my caffeine fuel
For his greater being's ridicule
I'm lonely and dropping uninvited cards
I'm synthesizing angry glass from shards
If these windows could scream they would sing through seams
The eyes of the wife with her flagging beams
And mellifluous scented glade plug-in streams
How I just want to hold on to such second-splitting dreams...
And be nice and neat and fancy free and dance to the feeling of something sweet
And join the endless race of sprawling legs and attempts to strike a light to dregs
But one day the rifts supplant the riffs inconsequential lines and lifts
Breaking apart in continental drifts...
There's nothing to this if not what ifs 

“Mobile Dreams In Tact”

Shadow stepping full of play
Children are permitted to dance
Adults will only stand as stacked
But where, I ask, is the truth in that?

Here I endure yet another stress fracture
Knowing the tools have been taken just to unlatch her

Our schedules no longer cross paths, it does seem
It's strange that a calendar would dictate dreams
Misplaced love and unchosen devotions
Life is merely song and motion
(or vanity and magic potion)

All of these feelings just won't change the facts
Rolling youth tolling but dreams still intact
She asks, "Who has a rash and who has a bruise?"
Better: Who's gonna win and who's gonna lose?

“Spaceback”

 Liz was in a car accident
and she's wired into her shoulderblade
and she is indeed a true metalhead
and she drools on you when you are in bed
and she laughs at all things newly dead
I need to be need to be else instead

Cuz I'm living inside of her dangerville
as LLC's bludgeoning my free will
Ad nauseum dronedom to make a healthy man ill
With guilt I'll feed the beast one more pill
and distill inside the belly of the whale
Where all of destiny's destined to fail
and the stockpiled ships never take sail

She is climbing a tree above me now
and up her dress the softness of a snail
and projectile falls from the mizzening sail

Fighting out the feeling squeezing tight
Slipping all over her retracting might
Flashing approaches of the element
Is all she will give me
this

soft

descent?

“The Lowest Thing”

 Hopeless happiness
and fleeting futility
Fading in front of me
as evening darkens the scene

All this joy intertwined with sin
Every thought to be bound within

Its pungency swarms in a cloud
It reaches me inside a shroud
The more the valence the more divorce
It loads the barrel full of force
Expelled in next month's fireworks

A voice is tripping to its knees
to be caught in the waves of symphonies
It's all dispelled ambivalently

I know that peace is not silent all
and the crest of joy is soon to fall
Everything is bound to die
Must reattach my wandering eye

Puke girl and me stole the sun
The lowest thing I've ever done

“Surrounded, Part 2 (Entwined)”

 I wanna embrace you post haste
and kaleidoscope stockings, knees, and napes
With balling lips you press your prints
to snuff out these fiery glints

Unmoored just like a boat at sea
All your voice calls frenzily
The purest thing's to hold your hand
I'm crippled for this, cannot stand

To leave from lost inside your breath
Entwined we'll even take on death

Now left to make sense of this solitude
When i'd rather just collapse and fall into
A coolfresh layer of skin and swim
Lover, we just weren't designed to win

 “Inevitable Loss” 

Sporting the compromised mantle I'm forced to put on
A passive observer trying to make sense of where it all went wrong
Looking at you I see the shattering of my rocks
And I'm screaming inside of my shadow-filled box
Forced inward to bang at my walls, feeling cruelly sabotaged
But your confidence machine won't stop.
Your plasticene smile and perfect line of ivory teeth
Are ceaselessly chomping in the wake of my defeat
I'm finally understanding it now- you're mean.
Just a neon-lit backdrop to the ceaseless candy screen
Obsession it comes, believing that love is just an opposite
And power a vermillion tongue upon a tit
You've reduced me to a fireless core, grey and nondescript
An antiseptic pile of dirt and shit
(Yet I'll always find some rainbow in it)

 “Sleep Demons”

Sleep demons swim like fishies in my brain
A warm fuzzy buzz placing bids on my bane
I rest my head down bidding sunlight goodbye
Floating aloft over rivers, an imagined sky
Demons took me when i was at rest
A penchant to yield to matters undurressed

My pate was snooping in sleeping tresses
of weekday witches in their perfume dresses
Turning in circles within that air
Perfect skin in the noonday glare
Ignored and pushed onward with such unrelent
Relinquishing morning on strictly her spent

Reason looked over and this truth I must spurn
Revels in the sun will cause one to burn

“Hot Days Are The Best”

 15 steps to Susquehanna on my left

Canada geese are congregating round
The run is beyond its midpoint now
Alone, empty-handed, and homeward bound

Silver saucers on the surface gleam
above impenetrable gray
They didn't mean to hold it in your hand
When they said to seize the day

The pounding on the pavement blocks
Perspective as it teeters and rocks
Away away the run aims far
Later accept just what we are
Now your chance to soak up the sun
and sweat it out through an afternoon run

“Surrounded, Part 3 (Endcap)”
Time to take a chair among the rest
The variables change, but the empty remains...
I'm speaking to her with my eyes alone
Across a prison-y flimsy film of foam
This time I believe she actually hears
And part of her yearn--it wants to learn!
But no time to get lost in such second-splitting bliss
Knowing every contact is a receding kiss
Of her body dome motion shading, surrounding
Whirling in circles in knots off-grounding
But grim reality vaporizes this oasis to mist
I'm only the shadow of another who kissed
The more I exalt it the lesser the plush
I'm only the ebb of another who touched
Let's face it now there's no pure love-
Amending the grass are the robins and the doves
Exposed amidst the commercial clamor
Once helping hands transform to hammers
Angry commerce whirs fiercely around her
Surrounding menace encroaches louder
Clanking inside like a 35-year old boiler
Is this why you've turned from bequeather to spoiler?
Now I'm deafening my ears to loud thunder in sips
There go pretty girls and the promise of rosy lips
Boasting their freshness and proffering paltry pips
Scuttling up sentimental staircases in slips

“The Latest Wars”

 Self-proclaimed leaders settling scores

We're left to wonder for who and what for
People used as pawns for causes, symbols to die
for neverending grudges and cultural divide
Never know the complete history behind the "patriotic" mission
Confusion of lives lost in battlefields of foggy exposition
Unwittingly give it all, just to go down and die
Blindly marching on and never questioning just why
Masks are put up everywhere like fronts of sanity
Obscuring the natural world and our intrinsic humanity

“Dolphins”

After having lost

I sank into apathy
and jeered your futility
Yet all the while
still trying to be

Something fresh and new
Hope giving way to
Disappointing revisits to youth
And sterile inklings to confuse
Obscuring the staleness of this truth

Even though I've compromised
and witnessed all my past attempts estranged
My desires have not changed
But this stagnant inlet of bogs and clogs
will always render courage strange

Some things will always be
sleek unfettered dolphins to me
Close for a moment but always ready
to return to their rightful place at sea

Sounding off ultrasonically
Like a throbbing pulse reminding me
Of if not here where I might be
If I had that missing part of me