Mandarin Ducks in December
Modern poetry modern verse contemporary poetry contemporary verse modern poem contemporary poem
The winter settles on the colors of
The throat and wings. A coldness there calls light
To make the feathers look like frosty love,
That darkened blue and how the almost white
Appears beneath the cheek. The coldness grips
Upon these creatures. Branches of the trees
Are shaken as the ducks twitch feather tips
In fitfulness of searching not to freeze.
A taffeta of iridescence tries
To fend off frost from plumpness, twitching tail
To breast. The beauty of the oval eyes
Is black enough to make the winter fail.
The wind here makes a glistening sound, the shapes
Of lustre, shimmer, shifting silk’s drake capes.
~ Phillip Whidden
