Selected Poems by William Franklin Andrews

THE ONE-LEGGED DUCK

Did you ever see a one-legged duck
On a pond where turtles had been?
Splashing and sunning his troubles away
As if he had two legs again?
Well a one-legged duck is friendly because
He tries but can’t run away.
He limps along and swims half as fast
As his two-legged friend by-the-way.
If you ever see a one-legged duck,
On a pond just flailing away;
Remember you are his two-legged friend
Without any troubles today.
For if you could be a duck for a day
With only one leg for a while;
You never would frown ever again
Your face would break out in a smile.
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TWEEDLE-DEE-DEE

Tweedle-dee Tweedle-dee Tweedle-dee-dum
Howbeit that you so lately have come
Down by the old mill searching for me,
Tweedle-dee Tweedle-dee Tweedle-dee-dee.
Where are you going with spring in your step?
Why here of late have our date you not kept?
When will I be safe to say, “Please marry me”
Tweedle-dee Tweedle-dee Tweedle-dee-dee.
When will your vain promise come to an end?
Where could you start if your ways you would mend?
Keep up your gait and some bad end you’ll see.
Tweedle-dee Tweedle-dee Tweedle-dee-dee.
First you told Johnny and next you told Bill
That they you would marry and give ‘em a thrill.
Now after much wooing you have promised me
Tweedle-dee Tweedle-dee Tweedle-dee-dee.
I’ll make you so happy for the rest of your life.
You’ll never be sorry that you are my wife.
If we cling together, soon there’ll be three
Tweedle-dee Tweedle-dee Tweedle-dee-dee.
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A CRY FOR PEACE

Now my heart in somber silence cries for sorrow in the Earth;
All the maimed and dying soldiers ask the question, “Why my birth?”
Frightened mothers – somber fathers wonder when the word is said
Will my son come home forever? Will the word come he is dead?
Leaders falter; offer reasons for the dying and the pain.
Will the peace which seems so fragile ever come to earth again?
While we bury brave young warriors; innocence still in their face,
All the world should hide their faces in dishonor and disgrace.
It seems that war is always with us – every generation knows;
Hurt of death and young men dying; will the tears not cease to flow?
I will work from this day forward with a dedicated zeal
For a better world to live in and the wounds to help to heal.
For I have a son so able – and the thought just makes me cry,
If he ever had to leave us; and in some foreign country die.
Madness evermore would haunt me and his mother’s mind would break.
And the world would lose a flower that could never be replaced.
To you leaders of our nation; to you military men;
Let me calmly give this warning for your thoughtlessness and sin.
Judgment waits in all its fury if you fail to hear the plea
Of the hundreds and thousands – moms and dads who cry like me.
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"The One-Legged Duck," "Tweedle Dee Dee," and "A Cry for Peace" are excerpted from From Humble Beginnings: Songs of a Native Son by William Franklin Andrews. Copyright 2005 William Frank Andrews all rights reserved.

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