Mallards

Sterling Davis | Poetry

I proclaim, I proclaim:
The duck is an odious nemesis.

This kingdom is made of minnowy echoes.
The fern exhales its umbilicus

You are inane, dear duck!
Your ablutions are filthy water.

And your bill, your bill, your bill—
It is utterly ridiculous,

Failing to contemplate this miasma,
These shadowy beams of light!

Sterling Davis is a Black poet and screenwriter. His work has appeared or is forthcoming in Nimrod, Notre Dame Review, Westwind: UCLA’s Journal of the Arts, Chiron Review, and other periodicals. Davis lives in Southern California. More information about his atelier can be viewed at www.thesterlingdavis.com.