COPYRIGHT Sharayah Pranger 2013

Atop a great iceberg, afloat on the sea,

sat a singular Penguin, as sad as could be.

He sobbed and he wept, and he whimpered for weeks,

and the teardrops all froze at the end of his beak.

As our Penguin sat bawling some sad secret wish,

one day up popped the head of a strange dragonfish.

“Why so sad, my dear bird?” to the Penguin, said she.

“What could make you so sad, floating here on the sea?”

The bird raised his head and he heaved a great sigh,

and he sorrowfully squawked with a glistening eye-

“As you’ve mentioned just now, I am surely a bird.

I’ve got wings and a beak! But what makes me absurd

is that I cannot fly, though I really do try!

Though I flap and I flip, though I’m nimble and spry.

So I sit here and weep for my poor useless flippers

They’re as useful to me as some pink ballet slippers.

The fish chuckled at Penguin, his rants and his raves,

and just as her fins disappeared ‘neath the waves,

her peculiar voice bubbled up, fishy and wet:

“My dear bird, were I you, I would not give up yet!”

Thus Penguin proceeded to weep even more,

as his cold makeshift raft drifted closer to shore.

He waddled to land by a tern and her chick,

who was learning to fly, though it proved quite a trick.

He watched as her spotted wings wobbled and fluttered,

her tiny feet slipping as if they were buttered.

But each hopeful jump just preceded a CRASH,

a skid, and a thump, and a nasty ice rash.

Suddenly, with a squeak, the small bird took to flight,

and she fluttered her winglets with all of her might!

Higher she spiraled, and then higher still,

and she shivered and shook with excitement and chill.

But for such a small ternling, the strain was too much.

As her wings lost momentum, her feathers lost touch

with that part of her brain, still so young and so small,

that instructed them “flap!”, so she started to fall.

As she hit the cold water, her mom gave a squawk

and flew from her place on the cold icy rock.

She dove deep as she could, then popped up with a frown

crying “Help, help, oh save us! My baby will drown!”

Without two second’s thought, our brave Penguin dove in

to the gray choppy depths, flailing tail, feet and fin.

He swam to the rescue with strokes strong and skilled

Hoping, hope against hoping no one would be killed!

The sea surface was calm, and the silence was thick.

It was Mama Tern’s turn to have tears on her beak.

They were certainly gone, sinking down through the water,

both brave penguin stranger and poor ternling daughter.

Then a gasp and a sputter, a splash and a spray!

From the sea burst the Penguin, with a cry of “Hooray!”

Cradled  close to his chest, dripping wet from her dive

was the scared little chick, shivering but ALIVE!

Penguin placed the wet chick at the mother tern’s feet,

And she gave him a kiss without missing a beat.

With a sputter, the baby bird opened her eyes,

And gazed all around with a look of surprise.

“Penguin, why, you’re a hero!” Mama Tern shrilly cried.

“You’ve saved my sweet chick from the ocean’s cold tide!

Who would ever have thought that a bird could dive so?

I’m so glad you don’t fly! I’m ecstatic, you know!”

For the very first time, Penguin knew that his worth

Wasn’t in what he couldn’t do, even from birth.

What made Penguin so special was how much he cared

for the life of another, even though he was scared!

Atop a great iceberg, afloat on the sea,

sits a singular Penguin, as brave as can be.