The Turtle Who Wanted to be a Water Snake
Oh, there once was a turtle named Freddy,
To make friends he was never quite ready;
He was terribly shy,
And ne’er could he try
To meet girl friends or ever go steady.
He was paranoid, frightened and glum;
To converse he felt constantly dumb,
And so ne’er could he speak
‘Cause he felt like a geek,
Not one buddy he had, not a chum.
So he kept to himself confidential,
And so ne’er could he reach his potential;
He did feel his rejection
In such total dejection;
His seclusion was so quintessential.
Freddy spread his hard case in the sun;
His chores that day had been done.
He could frolic and bask;
He had finished his tasks,
But through fear, other creatures he’d shun.
Little Freddy was terribly shy,
To socialize often he’d try,
And try as he could,
He never felt good
Far from others he’d swim with a sigh.
“Get away; get away; go from here!
I don’t want you and let me be clear—
It’s not that you’re bad,
It’ just that I’m sad
Whenever there’s company near.
Dear young Feddy had nary a friend,
So the messages that he would send
Would keep him alone
With his negative tone;
His aloneness he couldn’t transcend
But this reptile, this sad little turtle,
Did once love a snapper named Myrtle,
But then she couldn’t stay
For their wedding day—
Their relation, it ne’er could be fertile
He did spy one fine day a young snake
Who was lithe and so thin like a rake;
With such confidence swam
To say, “Here I am;
What you give I am sure I can take.”
He whipped through the water so clean
With a body so beautif’ly lean;
Freddy envied the boy
Who swam with such joy
Which wrought havoc on Fred’s self-esteem
Our young Freddy could live in the slime
From his hiding he rarely would climb
The crowd left him alone
And they’d not hear him moan
“How I wish like the snake I could shine.”
Oh, maybe I’ll ask him his name
And how he accounts for his fame
For he’s brave and he’s brash
With such singular dash
I do know that his fears he has tamed.
Furthermore, I’m a stick-in-the-mud
As I lie here so stuck in the crud
I long for the day
When I’ll truly say
I have guts and hot flames in my blood.
Said Fred when the snake swam nearby,
“I will screw up my courage to try
To speak then to him
When by he does swim;
I’m refusing to hide and be shy.”
“Hello there, my friend, what’s your name?
I’m lonely, can we play a game?
Whatever you choose
You could win, I might lose;
Swim over and tell me your name.”
He responded right then to my call;
He didn’t ignore me at all,
But then in a flash
A huge fish did dash,
And against him the snake was too small.
The monster, he spotted a meal—
My new friend, he started to squeal,
“Oh, save me from this,
For I’ll not be his dish.
Oh, please, save me!” he cried in appeal.
‘Cause the fish could do him some wrong,
I swam with my strength full headlong,
And battered the side
Of the fish till he cried—
Wow! I forced him away ‘cause I’m strong
The snake gave me his name, it was Gus;
His thanks, they were so plenteous,
And all that he could say
Was he wanted to pay
For this debt, for he was courteous.
He took me to lunch then and there;
The weather was shiny and fair—
‘Twas a glorious day,
And I just want to say
It was good to be out in the air
Oh, we dined on some flies and some weed,
And polished it off with some seed;
It was thorough good cheer
To have a friend near,
And nothing our joy did impede.
So you see I’m not such a dud;
I don’t have to live in the mud—
Just be nice to some others
And you will have true brothers—
For compassion is truly life’s blood
So from that day on and forever,
The lesson is simple not clever:
Be kind to God’s kin
And you always will win,
So do good deeds for all and whomever.