Late Season Ducks
By Joe Harris
Silently coming in,
Cupped out front,
They splash down in front,
Jet planes landing on an aircraft
carrier,
Water splashes in their trail,
Their green heads glisten in the winter
sunlight,
Looking every which way,
Ready to leave at any moment,
Tense like a cat waiting to pounce,
They smell the rat swimming near by,
Jumping off the water,
Golden drops fall from their bodies,
Their wings beat up and down like
pistons,
Away they go,
Silent lambs running from a wolf,
Their grey tux’s fade on the horizon,
Their wings silent,
Two grey tuxes,
Gone as quietly as they came,
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The Perfect day
By Joe Harris
As the truck door opens,
Cold air hits me,
Piercing every layer of clothing I have
on,
We walk to the timber,
Snow crunches beneath my feet,
We fight our way through the frozen mud,
And into the opening,
All of the runs through the timber are
frozen but one,
There we carefully place the decoys,
Everything is perfect,
We stand still for two reasons,
One being that a solid layer of ice has
formed around our legs,
And two being that their are mallards
circling above us,
One hen commits,
She lands perfectly,
We do not shoot,
For it is the last day of the season and
she will be mating soon so we leave her be,
The hen has brought numbness back into my
body,
And for that I thank her,
I’m not paying attention,
Fiddling with something in my pocket,
Suddenly,
Out of now where,
Two green heads are cupped and right in
front of me,
I hear dad shoot,
One falls,
The other is flapping his wigs as hard as
he can,
I pull the trigger,
He folds his wings and falls,
We should have the dog at home,
She broke her foot at Stuttgart hunting
with dad,
And she knows that she shouldn’t retrieve
it,
But she couldn’t stand it,
She leaps into the water and gets dads
duck,
Despite the “words” that he is amazing
not yelling at the dog,
She brings it to me,
Knowing that neither of us can move to
stop her she leaps after the second duck,
We hear distant honks,
We pass them by thinking “never again”,
But they grow louder,
Dad starts honking to them on his call
and sure enough,
They set down right on us,
We take down two each (our limits),
The dog had hit the water before the
geese do,
She comes up to me,
Her coat is covered in ice,
Holding her paw up,
She whimpers to me,
I say, “You were the one who leapt after
those ducks, no one told you to”
She looks up to me with those big brown
eyes as if to say,
“Jerk”
I start rubbing her to get the ice off
her fur,
I know that if she keeps shivering we
will have to go in,
I take off my coat and pick her up,
I nestle her under a bush,
I wrap the coat around her,
I put the hood on a stick so it will fall
off when she runs to get a duck,
I watch her because she always seems to
see the ducks before we do,
She is fake sleeping with one eye barley
open,
She suddenly starts to quiver,
I whisper to dad,
We do not see the ducks but we hear them,
We start calling,
I peer over my hat and catch a glimpse of
eight mallards,
Dad suddenly freezes his moment,
Since he is already frozen in the other
way,
He is still calling and the ducks are not
interested,
I chime in and they turn,
They really want in now,
They set up perfectly behind dad,
He has no idea that they are there,
They cupp and come whizzing by dad,
He shoots taking one,
I shoot three times and take two,
He shoots two more time and takes three,
I see a black blur run by me,
It is no longer any use yelling at her so
I just let her do her job,
Dad doesn’t even lift a finger,
For two reasons,
One that it is no use,
Two because it is to cold,
And he has to many gloves on to allow
enough movement to lift a finger,
She brings me the first duck I shot,
It is a beautiful greenhead,
He’s double banded,
I am breathless,
My first banded bird,
The first band said “You Lucky Duck”
The second band “the end to a perfect
day’
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