a.m.

Embedded in the froth of twisted yellow 

fluff that is the duck's first protection

is a whisper to the canal where all 

the young rehearse for better swimming

even as the gray pink bluish light comes true

even as tree birds pierce the upper 

registers of leafing trees even as 

a walker hushes by the leash of a dog 

and the dog and water seem hum-less 

and there are waking sounds around the canal

nothing is quite morning amid 

all the externals of motion and what each 

owns or has or uses to go forward

without knowing how it works to be safe.