Page 50 - Secondary School BEATS

A Fable Retold:

The Ugly Duckling

By Ananya Anand (MYP 4)

Once upon a time,
As the sun rose to shower us with daylight,
With flocking white feathers and crystal clear water,
My siblings chirped around me as I was pushed farther,
In the pond that was once my home,
As the lonesome disappointing daughter,
This exclusion was not far from a devastating disorder.

My feathers may not be as pristine,
Nor are my eyes a scintillating blue,
God punishes me with this gene,
I have nobody to befriend, all because of my hue.

Even the sun seems shy to bestow its light,
On a little duck lacking all that clarity of white.
I swim and I wallow but inside, my heart is so hollow
I may never belong to a world this bright,
Perhaps it is time for my flight.

As I waddle through the bushes,
It is as though they all seem to huddle,
Pushing me further from days with no hurdles,
I stand all crooked and bent, my webbed feet all spent,
"This is the door to my new life", I think to myself
And if not now, then when?

Peering through the winds,
I see a wedge of swans flutter by,
Some a patchy brown and others a soft white,
All of them together, not a loner was in sight.
No ugly little duckling, all of them beautiful and shy.

Leaves crunch below my webbed feet,
A swan turns and looks towards me,
My heart drops to my stomach as I wait for her to speak.

‘Who are you? Why are you here?” She asks.
She pulls me in, and I join the flock.
An impostor no more, I’ve finally been adored.

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