David Welch Poet Rhyme

Dual Natures

There’s a mallard in a small pond,
and I see him sometimes out there,
paddles around the still waters,
bereft of any greater cares.
Sometimes I watch him disappear,
diving down for fish or for snails,
then resurface long yards away,
seemingly devoid of travails.
Cares for nothing but feeding and
impressing this season’s new mate,
sporting a sublime head of green,
existing in a simple state.
The thought sometimes appeals to me,
that basic beast intelligence,
frees them from the stress and worries
that accompany sapience.
No existential fear or dread,
no great ideas cloud up the mind,
there’s no worries for the future,
and no morals good or malign.
Freedom from the weight of it all,
not a single bill they must pay,
I wounder if it makes some sense
to evolve to live in that way…

But then I do remember that
an eagle circles overhead,
and if it cannot find a fish
it swoops down, and the duck is dead.
I recall that the foxes might
sometimes sneak on down to the shore
and eat his children in the nest,
or his mate if they want some more.
I know that he has no real home,
his species cannot plant its feet,
the winter comes and he must fly,
if not he’ll either starve or freeze.
I understand that if he’s hurt
no one will help him to survive,
he cannot make any mistake,
if he does he will surely die.
And no one will remember him,
they’ll just see his carcass as food,
vultures feasting on a body
just seems to me all sorts of rude.
Sitting safely within my house
it points to truth I can’t avoid;
our human world ain’t always bad,
nature heals…but also destroys.

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