Ducks Can’t Dance by CL Bledsoe and Michael Gushue

63,237 books. That's how many
hours I can't spare. Do you know
that ducks can't see the color
orange? You would if you'd ever
read a book about ducks. Paper
always curls up when it burns
unless it's been printed against
the grain. Did you know that? Certain
rare species of bookworms eat the ink right
off the page, leaving only serial commas,
unless, of course, they're eating newspapers
or my students’ essays. In newspapers
they replace all the facts with equally
plausible facts which means they don’t
replace a goddamn thing. My students
just weep until their essays turn
back into pulp and the ink turns back
into what I was thinking before I was distracted
by having to do my job.  It’s not much,
but at least it’s a living hell only on Tuesdays.
BTW, it's not true about the ducks. You should
know that. It's yellow they can't see. Unless
they're on fire, unless they care.

*****

CL Bledsoe is the author of a dozen books, most recently the poetry collection Riceland and the novel Man of Clay. 

Michael Gushue runs the nano-press Beothuk Books and is co-founder of Poetry Mutual/Vrzhu Press. His work appears online and in print, most recently in Beltway Poetry Quarterly, the Michigan Quarterly, and Gargoyle. His chapbooks are Gathering Down Women, Conrad, and Pachinko Mouth (from Plan B Press).