What Aesop’s tortoise might have taught us

I remember the race,

and the confident hare.

I remember the win.

But I really don’t care

for the moral that’s drawn from

that one-off affair.

The hare could have won

and if truth be told,

races are meant

for the fast and the bold.

But the rat race, the human race-

both leave me cold.

For racers don’t see

what is perfectly plain

to the slow and the steady –

all the living you gain

going at my pace

in the slow lane.

Kate O’Neil

• Submitted in response to Poetry Prompt #5

Kate said: I initially planned to have the tortoise address the bird, but the poem had other plans. I remember as a child being annoyed by the way generalised moral pronouncements could be extracted from specific “one-off” anecdotes. This fable was a case in point. That idea took over.  Sorry bird. Maybe next time.