~ Delta Poetry Review ~

Philip C. Kolin

Crested Ducks in the Delta Flyway

In their navy dress whites

They are both sailors

And the ships they sail in.

They navigate through

The Delta Flyway

Crossing several counties

In a few hours as long as

Warm river winds bless

Them on their journey.

Each wears the insignia

Of an admiral in the avian navy,

Crested feathers atop the head.

Sailing in elegant armadas

They pipe to each other about

Brave departures

And arrivals, and if skies

Look red in the morning

Or sunshine waits for them.

The best news the fleet

Receives is that rice fields are

Only ten or twelve wetlands away.

Rice is like grog to these sky

Sailors, and the Delta gives them

Plenty of places to get loaded.

Philip C. Kolin is the Distinguished Professor of English Emeritus and Editor Emeritus of the Southern Quarterly at the University of Southern Mississippi. He has published over 40 books on Tennessee Williams, Shakespeare, and  African American women playwrights and including 17 collections of poetry, Delta Tears: Poems (Main Street Rag, 2020); Emmett Till in Different States: Poems (Third World Press, 2015); and White Terror, Black Trauma: Resistance Poems about Black History (Third World Press, 2023). Kolin has also published collections of poems on theological topics, such as Evangeliaries: Poems (Angelico Press, 2024) and A Centenary Garland: Poems about St. Therese of Lisieux (Teresian Press, Oxford, UK, 2025).