Green Turtle

Green Turtle

Oh green green turtle
So hard is your shell
Which covers but cannot protect
Happy, you say, Alive
Yet how would you know
Folded up and tucked away
Existing
Moving but only enough to
Strengthen your shell
Oh green green turtle
Snapping at foliage
Without ever seeing its beauty
You digest it
It sustains you-Yet for what
Your existence is but reflections in a lake
To easily destroyed
Out, I’ve seen you out
Meandering slowly along
Preparing at every turn to vanish
Inside that hard green shell
Scared, cracked, squared, happy, you say
Yet you hide from raindrops and ravens
From eagles that rush down only to, “say move or die.”
Turtle green green turtle Ohhhh
So hard is your shell.

Richard Nedervelt
1996