Elid
A duck repeats loud expostulations
which Elid tries to ignore, without success.
There might be circumstances, or a mood,
in which the creature could entertain him.
Not now. Not here. He has been insulted –
to attend a meeting that seems clandestine
with the most powerful man there is. So new
he lacks a title yet. He is the best
though no one says that. They just all behave
or give him deference and twitching fear.
Soon no doubt he shall become a great lord
employing his wisdom to control vassals
paying in cash, in kind or both to be;
and to be bullied and rewarded well
simultaneously and at random
and the man has not attended at all
nor has a message been sent – unless
this absence is a message – of its kind
he is a mouse thinking itself its own creature
to be grabbed suddenly and then tortured
as plaything of the grand with goods. Or left
seeking for nutritious food where there's none.
Perhaps the man forgot. Or changed his plan.
Or else was waylaid on his way and hurt.
Or taken prisoner. Or killed. The duck
continues its exhortation. Hungry?
Perhaps it is apprehensive. Hungry
no doubt. They are always hungry. Shivery.
He is. The bird is. He tries to see it
as God's creature, but cannot believe
it has any real significance.
How could it be true this small thing matters?
Half-imagined openings in his credo
extend into chasms and dry ravines
a topology of pointless emptiness
in which he shall be abandoned to die.
The duck pecks at his foot, looking upwards
expectantly. He pushes it away
and begins pacing the wet windblown gravel,
often stumbling a little bit; until he tires;
at which point he wonders about his visibility.
Which may be undesirable. Imagine
the villain saying to some bad hireling
“Go out to the promontory and kill there
the idiot you find waiting, that damned priest”,
achieving the Devil's aim with his own thought
waiting there, making himself a small landmark
for the searching murderer clutching a sharpened sword.
He reaches down tenderly towards the bird
which flinches back squawking, but otherwise dumb.
Elid looks out for a path; and he finds one
which is low down. He follows that through mud
and sometimes stagnant water, through brambles
which cut his ankles painfully, and hides
near to but not in his covert dwelling
for fear the dwelling is known to his lord.
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