If I was a bird…
Would I fly away every time I saw the wind turn?
So I wouldn’t have to learn..
Learn what it feels like to deal with any stress or pain…
When there’s a storm, to avoid taking on responsibility again,
Would I just fly away?
Or perhaps if I was a snail…
I could get left behind from all the drama,
Which perhaps I would much rather,
Because I wouldn’t have to make another big decision,
To have the mentality to make it with such fine precision,
Perhaps no-one would notice me at the back,
And I could just stay quiet on the straight and narrow track,
Or just… maybe if I was a whale…
No-one would be brave enough to offend me…
Or surely if I could just be…
Be something else, perhaps a zebra…
That way people couldn’t read me to then tease me
They would ask am I black with white stripes?
Or white with black stripes?
Was I feeling good with a tint of bad?
Or did my heart feel happy or feel sad?
It would be confusing to work me out,
At least no-one could use my emotions to push me about,
Or perhaps if I was an elephant,
No-one would walk over me,

Perhaps I would never feel intimidated or uneasy,
Or what if I was a cat,
I could be daring and brave,
With nine lives until the grave,
Well so they say,
I could go in and out home when I like each day.
But what I know is that God has made me…
To face the times when people may offend me in the day,
To face it when there’s hurtful things people say,
To be open and straight with God and to trust,
And to me to have faith which is a must,
To stay protected in God’s heart,
So I can distinguish who has respect,
And true love for me from the start,
I am human, I am a child of God, I am me,
And there’s no other creature or person God has called me to be.

A POEM PENNED BY MISS CATHERINE GARDNER.