Perhaps, We Are Better Off

I felt like writing something whimsical today and came up with this children's poem.


Perhaps, We Are Better Off

Imagine if you were a giraffe,
so tall you couldn't see your own feet,
with your neck stuck up, way up, in the sky,
smacking your head on the lights by the street.

And what if you were an alligator
living in a muddy, old bog.
With your biggest fashion statement being,
that if you hold very still, you can look like a log.

Would you like to be a porcupine--
all sharp and pointy and prickled?
You'd never be loved, never be hugged,
and never be tickled.

How about the jellyfish?
Just a floppy, floating bubble of squish.
A ball of goo with nothing better to do
than to sting beach goers who swim with the fish.

What if you were a caterpillar?
Think how much it would cost to buy shoes!
Sneakers, pumps, boots, and slippers!
You'd be singing the too-many-shoes blues.

Given all of that, perhaps, we are better off
just being who we were meant to be.
Besides, longing to be something we're not,
we all know, is just an exercise in futility.