Today is Day 8 of my Poetry Series, Chant for the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. For the full series go to my homepage here: marialoveswords
Duck Blind
--> Duck Blind
What if you sat in a duck blind
without the intention to kill?
What could the half frozen lake
with its Withered Reeds Teach you?
What if I asked that you
wait upon the swans to notice you?
Watch as they curve their necks in an “S”
to signify they were watching you too,
even as they tucked their four young between
them like precious books yet to be read.
What would you hear in the middle
of the Brooks Range at night?
Would you fold the silence into a common crane
to send back into the world of noise?
Would you place the small crane on your desk
as reminder of the wild spaces inside you?
What is the lesson in the snow hare’s stillness?
Is to go unnoticed the last act of rebellion?
In camouflage men have learned to kill,
but what if you set down your arms today?
You can stop killing,
put down your bow,
unstrap your gun,
and walk outside in bare feet–
even in the city. See what you can learn
from a scribble of branch upon a steely sky.
What if you sat in a duck blind
without the intention to kill?
What could the half frozen lake
with its withered reeds teach you?
Maria Garcia Teutsch
18.December.2017
