Cwack - By: Marley Lyanah

I used to be a duck in a river, through everyone's eyes I was gracefully gliding, I was confident, and I was smart. I was perfect, I was at peace.

no one could tell how much I was struggling to stay a float. No one could see the struggle underneath the water. My act of floating was a masterpiece.

At least I thought it was. I'm not sure if eventually I met people who had goggles or if the chaos under the water turned into splashes.

Either way soon people sow it. With the picture I presented they took out their lighters and turned it to ashes.

I was placed in a glass tank for everyone to see. I was swimming in circles trying not to drown and they watched as my legs paused.

Adventaly I was exhausted. I knew I was a terrible duck for showing the splashes allowing people to see the reality of who I was.

If I'm not perfect I'm nobody. If I'm not getting the best grades then I'm a failure. If I don't love myself then there is no one who would.

What is the point of swimming if they can all tell. There is none. They can all see the truth so why bother anymore. You should just give up for good.

I long to go back to being the duck no one sow, the one they assumed is graceful and put together. The ones no one talked about or watched with nothing to explain.

For now I'm stuck, wondering how long I can hold my breath or if I'll ever have enough energy to kick back up again.

Please give a detailed explanation about the meaning and main idea of this poem.

The meaning behind my poem is about wanting to always be seen as the perfect person. Between getting top grades, good friends, mentally healthy, and physically healthy. Then people could see me starting to slip, I was showing signs of struggling and I never knew what people thought, even though thats the only thing I cared about.

Please explain your writing and thought process regarding this poem.

My thought process was how to show the feelings that I was going through. Always being seen as perfect until one day I wasn’t, I could not understand why no one cared.

Why did you choose to write this poem?

I choice to write this poem to get out how I was feeling, healthy.