Platypus

“The platypus sometimes referred to as the duck-billed platypus, is a semiaquatic, egg-laying mammal endemic to eastern Australia, including Tasmania. The platypus is the sole living representative of its genus Ornithorhynchus, though a number of related species appear in the fossil record.” - Wikipedia

Sometimes you feel like a platypus

In a world full of mammals

Who give birth to soft lovable babies

When all you can seem to create

Are real eggs with rough edges.

What does one do with such a predicament?

In my case we refuse to have children,

And we find the lost mammals

Who also are bound to produce eggs.

Not fuzzies, not stuffed animals

Not even children,

But eggs that may also need to be born

And will feel like they themselves stick out,

Like sore little platypi, unable to truly fit

Anywhere but among their own rare genus.

But you know what?

I believe that in the human race

There are many many genus’ of platypi,

And we are all just looking for an excuse

Or a warm place

Where we can just relax, and be ourselves.

Why do I need to ask permission to simply exist?

The fact is that God made me just as I am

For a reason, and that truly,

I get to make my own decisions in this life.

So why does it just feel so damn awkward?

I do not want to feel shame for simply being myself,

And neither should you.

No, not everyone is a platypus:

Rare, bittersweet, gaslit,

Hairy, colorful, seemingly a wall flower,

Alone, but not fatally alone,

Simply alone in Spirit, but definitely not alone

In the eyes of Mother Earth.

We are here for a reason, we may be rare,

But this makes us special.

Different is not something to be feared or scolded,

It must be allowed to exist -

It must be given room to breathe…

Not forced to comply or conform.

Be beautiful, even if you are a platypus,

But let us not be angry at the normies,

At the people who pass.

On a day such as this, MLK Jr Day,

Let us embrace all that is deemed different or wrong.

It is okay to have hair that is different, or hair at all.

It is okay to love yourself and identify with what feels right and natural.

The natural world is not to be feared or controlled,

It is here to be celebrated.

Let’s celebrate diversity and all it gifts our species -

Our multiple species, living on land,

In the water, in the sky, or for that matter in/on all three!