Duck waddled down the winding road
Hope tucked under her wing
A dream one day
she’d see the sea
Hear how the water could sing

Waddling along
Quacking her song
Duck and the open road

Duck met a drake on her journey
He said,
“come back to my pond with me
There’s dabbling delights for ducks like us
Only danger awaits at the sea.”

Duck told the drake no thank you
She appreciated his concern
But she had a pull to attend to
Steps to take and lessons to learn
The drake flew away affronted
Duck’s eyes alighted on a speck in the view
Shades of possibility 
Cloaked in a blanket of blue

Waddling along
Quacking her song
Duck and the open road

Duck met a gull a while later 
scent of salt upon the air
“Where are you heading young duck?
I only ask because I care
This way leads to the deep blue sea
It has too many perils for you
Us gulls are used to the ways of the beach
But you’ll be trussed up and thrown in a stew."

Duck thanked the gull but moved onwards
Eyes fixed on the shimmering light up ahead
She found none of the warnings given
Could turn her heart full of hope into lead
She would see for herself this ocean
Marvel at water that stretched without end
No banks all around to contain it
No rocks around which it must wend

Waddling along
Quacking her song
Duck and the open road

Duck found her way to the seaside
It wasn’t all she had dreamed it would be
It was noisy and cramped with sun bathers
Party people all riding jet skis
So she bade goodbye to this ocean
Hit the road once again to roam
She’d completed her quest
But the thing she liked best 
Was exploring this world she called home

Waddling along
Quacking her song
Duck and the open road

Duck met the gull and the drake on the road
As she followed the path of return
“We said you wouldn’t like it” they jeered
“You should have listened to our concerns”
But Duck shook her head as she told them
“It was my knowledge to gain on the way
If I don’t discover the world for myself
I’ll only know what others might say.”

The gull and the drake felt the truth of her words
Saw a vision of what life could be
A weight they didn’t know they were lifting
Fell away as they tasted the feeling of free
They felt the expanse of their hearts 
As Duck’s words settled down and stuck
And they joined her on the open road
The gull and the drake and the duck

Waddling along
In a chorus of song
Duck, Drake, Gull and the open road

Duck, drake and Gull may seem unlikely candidates for a such a journey, but that’s what I like about creative writing; if they want to waddle along the open road singing their hearts out, they can!

Thanks for joining me for another Sunday rhyme time. I hope you enjoyed our weekend of duck tales together. In the picture above you can make out the beautiful blue speculum in a duck’s plumage that I mentioned in my previous post. I’m not sure what kind of post next week will bring, so best you come back to find out.