Sunday, October 7, 2012

The Duck's Luck

Isn't there an old English folktale or folksong with that title?
If there isn't, there should be.

Not that all luck runs downstream . . . .

The ebbs and flows, 
The floods and shoals . . . .

I now tend to consider carrying such a luck piece a worthwhile wooing of Fortuna.   This wrought clod-of-clay gives me something to turn in my hand -- a talisman, a worry-stone --for when I grasp at a bit of boost, that palpable push, from the web-footed luck of the big-billed duck.