Turtle

By Kay Ryan

_{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 being practical,
She’s often stuck up to the axle on her 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 some lottery
Will change her load of pottery to wings.
Her only levity is patience,
The sport of truly chastened things.}

,.~*' My Reaction '*~.,
Turtles are indeed slow and sometimes defenseless when it comes to running. However, I always wonder what it thinks of its life; nothing better happens, everything in its environment moves ahead quickly, while the turtle tries accomplish a difficult task that would be considered "easy". This reminded me of the story of a race between rabbit and a turtle. Even though the rabbit has more advantage in speed, the turtle did not complain, because it's so patience. The rabbit may brag about its speed and mock turtle's inability, the turtle probably has more than anything else, if it could still live which such burden. The poet picked the words well to describe the turtle's slowness, such as "grace less" and "four oar helmet". Most of the descriptions focused on the turtle's movement, and almost like a close up video of it. The poem had no rhyming ends but the poet seemed to insert several in middle of sentences, just that they are not written by stanzas. The poem first gave me a headache because the poem itself seemed slow and grinding, but I thought the ending was proper. Even though there are so many things turtles lack and suffer, it's not its mere abilities compared to others that makes the turlte so valuable, or anybody else that lacks abilities considered "great" for that matter.