TURTLE
Who would be a turtle who could help it?
A barely mobile hard roll, a four-oared helmet,
she can ill afford the chances she must take
in rowing toward the grasses that she eats.
Her track is graceless, like dragging
a packing-case places, and almost any slope
defeats her modest hopes. Even bring practical,
she is often stuck up to the axle on the way
to something edible. With everything optimal,
she skirts the ditch which would convert
her shell into a serving dish. She lives
below luck-level, never imagining to some lottery
will change her load of pottery to wings.
Her only levity is patience,
the sport of truly chastened things.
Who would be a turtle who could help it?
A barely mobile hard roll, a four-oared helmet,
she can ill afford the chances she must take
in rowing toward the grasses that she eats.
Her track is graceless, like dragging
a packing-case places, and almost any slope
defeats her modest hopes. Even bring practical,
she is often stuck up to the axle on the way
to something edible. With everything optimal,
she skirts the ditch which would convert
her shell into a serving dish. She lives
below luck-level, never imagining to some lottery
will change her load of pottery to wings.
Her only levity is patience,
the sport of truly chastened things.
Kay Ryan
(extracted from Reader's Digest; August Issue)
(extracted from Reader's Digest; August Issue)
