Today's poem is by Michael David Madonick
Muskrat
We cannot reconcile ourselves, the incongruities
of our bodies and of our natures, that which is castin the purposeful inheritance of our incisors, two worlds
puck-toothed, joined. Above the water and below,it is always a matter of mediation, breathing and
holding one's breath. That we forage, skim the deepreaches of the pond and then rise, leaving each measure
of our find on the surface or in our den, is a kind ofcommunion, an offering, registering the spirit of our dual
lives, the constant transformation, the covenant withthe world we leave behind. Soft enough for a czarina's neck, or
fodder for some fiery Cajun roux, the afterlife affords no resolution.Yet here, in the now, in the soft repellant glide across
the pond, we are nearly delightful, toppling the bulrushto make our furtive home. And if the aroma, our name, that spreads
a warning to our bourgeois neighbors, is not enoughhumilitythen, has fashioned a tail.
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Copyright © 2014 Michael David Madonick All rights reserved
from Bulrushes
The Backwaters Press
Reprinted by Verse Daily® with permission
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