I've never seen a swan but they
Told me that swans are majesty,
And to beware of geese and ducks
Are meant to be seen but not touched.
So, I grew thinking waterfowls
Had modes of meaning all their own,

And in these modes, I added some,
Like every child aspires to do, when
Imagination takes a run and
You’re told a story incomplete
Because adults are quite lazy.

So in my head, I made a myth of
Swans and geese and ducks and though
There weren’t no ponds round where I lived
I built one in my head, where ruled
The mighty swans who fought the geese
For the fate of waterfowls all over,
And there rose a duck who turned the tide
And joined the swans to end disorder.

This is how
Amidst the toils of adolescence
I dreamt stories of water avians.

Where I live now has a pond, quite small,
But with some ducks and rarely geese.
I see no swans but I’m told they’re rare
Round this part of town but still, I dream
When I walk around the pond each sunset
To glimpse all three, and it makes me smile,
I don’t dream them anymore and rarely write
But I carry those child time stories
About waterfowls, close to my heart,
Even though they’re loud and quite annoying.