Mallard Friend II

Returning late at dusk I heard her cry,

In pain she stood and long awaited me.

I saw the damaged leg, the clouded eye

And listened to her murmur plaintively.

Trustingly she comes and does not fly

As I approach bearing her daily food,

I sit near her and in my grief I sigh

Alone with her in evening's solitude.

This morning limping she has come again

And carefully I offer her the tray,

I cannot gauge the measure of her pain

Or know if she will somehow last the day.

The males arrive and seeing her distress

Crush her in their frantic haste to mate,

She bears in silence their aggressiveness

For in the genes the need to procreate

Is strong as the desire to survive.

And so this life through pain must still prevail.

Knowing that greatest bliss is to live

We bear with death and bear our long travail.