Just Ducky, Why

JUST DUCKY, WHY? “Oh, look, my little Johnny’s the only one in step.” It had always seemed that way, somehow, no matter how hard he tried little Johnny just couldn’t seem to get it straight. He colored outside the lines just because he thought the hippo should be a little bigger, rounder, you know, like a hippo. He was told by the music teacher “he couldn’t carry a tune in a bucket”. Little Johnny didn’t care too much for choir but he sure liked to sing those alleluia’s - loudly. He was, or at least was told he was – too slow for the track team too short for the basketball team too soft spoken for the debate team. That he was, always would be, “a duck out of water”. “Well, the duck seems pretty happy in the water” “and always goes back in when he wants to be happy.” “I wonder what, or where, my water is?” Over time little Johnny accepted his fate, celebrated being the only one in step with himself, colored outside the lines, sang off key and loudly, understood that he danced to a different tune. Not much has changed for “little” Johnny. Oh, he got bigger, accepted his “duck-ness”, still can’t carry a tune in a bucket, is still too slow, too short, too soft spoken. Yet he knows that he is just fast enough, just tall enough, just loud enough, and just musical enough for himself and he wouldn’t have him any other way. John G. Lawless 2/20/2015 Submitted – Out of Water – Poetry Contest sponsor – Sheri Fresonke Harper