Two Frogs in Different Wells
Paul Burgess

The heavens drop some ants and flies

to feed him deep inside his well,

and stony walls are like a shell

repelling birds that roam the skies.

He lives as if inside a womb,

a place uncommon for a frog,

and couldn’t tell a rotting log

from Noah’s Ark or Ramses’ tomb.

But told the tales of bugs who fall,

his prey that’s seen the high and low,

he doubts the things they claim to know

and feels he’s wiser than them all.

II.

A frog who haunts a different well

has heard from spiders, flies, and lice

that up above is Paradise,

which makes him think his lodging Hell --

an Earth abandoned by its star

despite the lack of cars and birds,

which seem to him no more than words,

than sounds divorced from what they are.

He’s learned of how the surface teems

with all the bugs a frog can eat,

with swamps that smell of ancient peat,

with mountains laced with silver streams.

III.

The former frog we spoke of first

believes his home to be the best,

insists no place is half as blessed,

and swears the land above is cursed.

The latter thinks, “From all I’ve heard,

if ranked as runners in a race,

of any three, this gloomy place

would always come in distant third.”

One’s shouting “Go!” the other, “Stay!”

and neither seeks a middle ground.

Extremes are what they both have found,

completely here or far away.

- - -

Paul’s notes: “Spanish and Japanese, languages I use on a daily basis, influence my thought and writing in both subtle and obvious ways. I often find myself thinking deeply about and going down rabbit holes inspired by metaphors, etymologies, and expressions from both languages and especially from Japanese, which couldn’t be more different from a Western European language. This piece was inspired by the expression ‘a frog in a well’, a Japanese expression with roots in an ancient Chinese proverb. ‘A frog in a well’ refers to someone who has limited knowledge of the world outside of a narrow environment and remains unaware of how limited his or her perspective is.

“The connection to this month’s theme is admittedly tenuous. I spend a month in Japan nearly every summer, and that month serves as so much of the motivation for nearly everything else in my life. So, the poem was inspired by a summer holiday and reminds me of my summer holiday despite not necessarily being set in summer.”

- - -

Paul Burgess is the sole proprietor of a business in Lexington, Kentucky that offers ESL classes in addition to English, Japanese, and Spanish-language translation and interpretation services. He has recently contributed work to Blue Unicorn, The Road Not Taken, Light, Apricity, Star*Line, The Orchards, Snakeskin, Pulsebeat, and several other publications. Paul’s blog is here and readers are welcome to contact him via this link.

- - -

Hop to…

Two Frogs in Different Wells Paul Burgess

Two Frogs in Different Wells
Paul Burgess