SESTINA DECOY

This is the sestina sent to fool
those coming to eat sestinas. She
will put on a part dress and comb
her hair with grand aplomb. The decoy
ploy of ringlets and rings is so the
real sestina in the grand old house
will never walk to the carriage house
never have to meet the one to fool
the guests that aren't welcome up in the
main house. The dressmaker says that she
makes clothes for both of them. The decoy
and the real McCoy use the same comb,
the same material, they cut and comb
their styles side by side in the houses
they each keep. You imagine the decoy
on the grass, a wooden duck to fool
the eyes into this lawn game. She
ties her dress bow, twiddles her thumbs. The
hopscotch game entertains on the
walk beside the lilacs, where she combs
her doll's hair and scuffs her saddle shoes. She
drinks her lemonade, watches the main house
door open just a crack to almost fool
the mind into thinking that the decoy
is really inside. This is the double decoy
defense, a hand model at the window, the
flower bed planted around the house to fool
even the gardener's wife, who combs
the dark loam for weeds. The only house
you see is the house she cleans and when she
opens the windows in the spring she
always puts purple silk flower decoys
on the window sills, no-water house
decorations everlasting to the
touch. Behind the bedroom curtain she combs
her memory for a picture of the fool.
Every morning she plays tag with the
decoy, combs her hair. Which one touches
last, which houses the fool? Which one is it?

The duck decoy can help you attract waterfowl, such as teal, mallards and widgeons. A decoy sestina might be useful to throw to the dogs in an English fox hunt, or to bend an arrow before it hits the stag. You could also chisel it in stone and use it as a door stop, to keep your house and mind open all the time.