Mallards on the Washington Channel

by Andrea Wyatt

In the winter light the drakes
sail through the drink,
green heads, yellow beaks,
scoop slugs and snails
caught in the shoreline grass,

river water rushes through the gates
of the inlet bridge, first in,
and when the tide turns, out
and sends the sord* into the air to join the gulls
that sweep the gray December skies.


*a flight of mallards,
from Middle English sorden, or, to surge