Benton Park’s mallards kill
engines in unison.
Razor sharp arrow point
under cloudy sky.  

They perfectly, in airshow sequence
and at unknown click,
shift west.
Their aft alight
with mites of a biology same.    

When they stall,
on the quilted altitude,

time  

stops.  

Shutter-still.  

Then bang! they bank north in a chorus,
bank again over Crittenden Street
in concert
and glide
anthem pluribus and unum equivocal.  

Each duck a meager muscle,
a paltry airlight bone
selflessly assembled
so to single seem a creature greater.  

As they,
descending
over Cherokee Street,
yaw.  

One all
in wet memory,
an eloquent synchrony sudden.  

Aim east again   
and climb.