My Dearest Duck Sonja

Sweet Sonja, my duck -

My beloved first child;

Thou cleft unto me 

From out of the wild.

I as thy mother,

Thou followed me 'round,

From pillar to post,

O'er high and low ground.

Trailing directly 

Behind my left foot*                *or right, as occasion should warrant

We walked up the path,

O'er dirt and o'er root.

Searching for worms

Under rock, tin, and tire,

Thou tuggest them out

With a manner inspired.

Shaking and quivering

And tossing thy head,

Gulping and swallowing,

Thou downest them dead.

All sizes of earth worm,

And night crawlers too,

Slide down thy gullet

All the day through.

Chest now distended

And squishy with food,

Thou sleepest it off,

My single-child brood.

Splashing and paddling

Around in the river,

Thou shakest off drops

With thy tail all a-quiver.

And when thou bathest

In the full cattle tank,

Thou divest in deep

And spasht me in prank.

I've learned in this time

That it's a great luck

To love and to cherish

And to mother a duck.

Oh, what great luck to mother a duck!