childhood object PAD 2-1

 The Tiny Green Duck

 

When I was a little child,

when the big kids were in school,

Mummy took me down to Pappap’s

where she helped care for Grandma.

 

I’d open the big buffet door

and pull out a round, tin button box.

Besides buttons of all colors and sizes

there was a tiny, plastic, green duck.

 

I don’t know why he was there.

or where he came from.

I never asked Pappap or Grandma,

but he was always waiting.

 

I’d have him swim around

on the silvery, tin-lid pond

and make believe the buttons

were rocks, people, other ducks.

 

I grew up and my grandparents died

and I’ve often wondered,

but never learned what happened

to the tiny green duck.