by I.M. Green
Unfortunately, these days we frogs are looked down upon as a pest and nuisance, and treated like a terrible Plague (number 2, or Public Enemy number 1).
People wish we'd stop making waves, cut the noise, and shut our trap.
No, I absolutely refuse to be quiet. It's not every day that we get to meet and communicate with each other. And although I'm not a man of words, we each bring our special message to the world. And while we recognize our borders and don'
t go beyond the line, I jump at this opportunity to share with you a new perspective.
As an amphibian, it's no big deal to go out on land. Yet for me, the lily is my pad, my home sweet home. So it wasn't easy to leave the cozy and oozy marsh, to go visit those alien people places. The people place is only a hop, skip and jump away, but how strangely they live, -'different strokes for different folks.'
Oh how we love the great outdoors where things are random, round and curvy.
But people places are straight and boxy. Unlike our full-bodied stones lounging casually around the pond, people stones are flat, straight and pressed tightly on top of each other.
Their hard, firm and dry floors have no soft and mushy feeling. Instead of allowing water to flow freely, people water is fenced in "baths." Sterile and lifeless, people water has all the nutrients extracted, so unfortunately, it has no bugs at all. Only about a month ago, the people's water was a bloody mess.
The Grass Isn't Greener
Guess what? The Grass isn't necessarily Greener on the Other side!
During our visit, I happened to run into a people place that looked like our lovely pond back home! My eyes popped out at the beautiful scene of tall grass, lily pads and bulrushes.
But, sadly, the tall grass had no body, taste or movement. It was just a false 'ersatz' people picture trying to imitate the real thing.
A people place box is about as big as a small pond, but its closed on top, so the sun, moon and stars are nowhere to be seen. Without trees or branches underfoot, everything ran nice and smooth, except in the kitchen, where the dough got a little sticky.
Ouch! The oven was burning hot, but some daring fellows made a leap of faith. Their sacrifice remains an inspiration to great men. Basically, we had the run of the place. Even tall people hundreds of times our size ran scared, shrieking at the top of their lungs. We tried to sing and entertain them, but they kept hitting us, which aggravated the problem, 'cause we kept growing by leaps and bounds.
The People Places were very impressive, but also very oppressive. It wasn't just us lowly beings they were beating. We also saw them beat down and mistreat people who worked so hard for them. I just hope that our presence distracted them, and somehow helped ease the suffering of those poor souls.
I still yearn for the good ol' camp swampie back home, but this was an adventure! Now that our mission is over, I guess it's time to croak!
