Listen to Jack B. Bedell read his poem “Gnomic” published in Shō No. 8 (Winter 2025/2026).
About this Poem: Whistling ducks have become a real fixture in coastal Louisiana over the past five years or so. Our state wildlife service puts the population increase of the species here somewhere around 4000% over the past few years. Evidently, they’ve migrated to us during our warmer months to avoid rising heat in their homeland. I wrote “Gnomic” after a huge flock of these ducks set up residence in my older brother’s backyard last summer. As I tried to describe in the poem, everything about this occupation was a surprise to him—the ducks’ constant screaming, the complete annihilation of his backyard grass, the idea of climate change and forced migration, all of it. What struck me most about the whole scene was how on-the-nose it all was in terms about how we as Louisianans tend to learn about environmental dangers or their ramifications. We ALWAYS seem to be late to the game, shocked, and scrambling when knowledge finally lands in our backyards. Because of that, I really feel like this poem wrote itself.
Jack B. Bedell is Professor of English and Coordinator of Creative Writing at Southeastern Louisiana University where he also edits Louisiana Literature and directs the Louisiana Literature Press. Jack’s work has appeared in HAD, Heavy Feather, Hawkeye, The Shore, Moist, Psaltery & Lyre, Dirtbag, Some Words and other journals. His work has also been selected for inclusion in Best Microfiction and Best Spiritual Literature. His latest collection is Fight Nights (Blue Horse Press, 2025). He served as Louisiana Poet Laureate 2017-2019.