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Michael Helsem

April 16, 2022

To the two ducks

Returning to our pool I say

Long time no see

I wonder where you wintered else

Instead of Dallas Texas

These past couple years

They look back at me

Not particularly alarmed

We were in the Land Without Tears 

And Where Bugs Abound

But there is war there too

Now, & we could not stay

Some madness in the Nine Worlds

You may have heard of, being a Poet

I said I was hoping

It hadn’t come to that

But since you have fled here

You are welcome to our pool

We never swim in

And any bugs you can find

Spared by the chemicals

People sow their lawns with

I am glad for a duck

People get on my nerves these days

They completely lack your dignity

And sense of tact

The duck continued staring

Fixedly at the blue painted pool

Michael Helsem was born in Dallas in 1958. Shortly afterward, fish fell from the sky.