Walking on Eggshells, Or Am I Just Quacking Up

Quack, quack, quack!

Born not three days ago,

covered in golden down, brilliant to the eye,

as adorable as any stuffed animals

these are Beijing ducklings.

Hey, are you quacking at me?! Well, quack you!

After a couple of months of nothing but eating, drinking, and playing,

the golden down is replaced by white feathers,

their entree (so to speak) to the world of duck adulthood!

Full-grown adult ducks, snow-white in color,

occasionally have the elegance associated with swans.

Nevertheless, from birth to adolescence to adulthood,

over the course of nearly 100 days in their watery habitat,

days which are the same one after another,

there is a certain element of anxiousness in their roving eyes.

Is there really nowhere else to go

in this all too-brief floating life of ours?

From sunrise to sunset,paddling, mealtimes, lining up, sunbathing.It seems only the blink of an eye, but it's been 100 days since I broke out of my shell.

It's my first day on the planet. Awesome!

While the owner's away, the ducklings will play.

From sunrise to sunset,paddling, mealtimes, lining up, sunbathing.It seems only the blink of an eye, but it's been 100 days since I broke out of my shell.

(Wu Fu-hsin's "octor Duck" Farm, Yilan County)