Little feet, six if them
\nPaddling along.
\nSix little eyes gazing
\nAnywhere but ahead
\nInevitable clunks.<\/p>\n
They meander
\nAnd swander off
\nSwimming in zigzags of flowy lines.<\/p>\n
But the second mom turns
\nUnison.
\nConformity. One solid vision of toddlerhood
\nSwarming and screeching
\n“Mama, mama”
\nLike 3 or 4 feet of separation will sever their weak fishing line connections.<\/p>\n
Mostly their perifery never lets her escape
\nBut occasionally a duckling
\nStumbles ahead.
\nWhat! The outrage! An injustice only a triplet can understand.<\/p>\n
In the focus and furor over each other they forget, however brief.
\nThey forget mom.
\nTussling, pushing, running on.<\/p>\n
“Little ducklings!
\nCome little ducks.”<\/p>\n
Mother!
\nWas that mother?
\nThey turn, adjust
\nRecalibrations complete, they swarm.<\/p>\n
Somehow in a few feet they transform.
\nDucks no more.
\nNo.
\nWolves. A pack fighting for dominance
\nAnd the prize of mom’s attention.<\/p>\n
Mom dodges and slips and evades
\nSeeking breath.
\nShe slowly walks on.<\/p>\n
“Come little ducklings”<\/p>\n
They fall back in place
\nDucks til the next rumble
\nFor now mom swims
\nIn the calm.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Little feet, six if them Paddling along. Six little eyes gazing Anywhere but ahead Inevitable clunks. They meander And swander off Swimming in zigzags of flowy lines. But the second mom turns Unison. Conformity. One solid vision of toddlerhood Swarming and screeching “Mama, mama” Like…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1392,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-115928","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-marathon-poem"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/115928","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1392"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=115928"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/115928\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":116109,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/115928\/revisions\/116109"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=115928"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=115928"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=115928"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}