There was a little duck, so cute, and warm, and fluffy a darling little bird who always said, “I’m Tuffy.”

Who nestled on the couch, surrounded by chips and dip, and never even considered, what chips can do to hips.

A midnight snack of Coca-Cola, and doughnuts filled with jelly, a slab of bacon, a chunk of cheese, rounded out his belly.

So on he grew and grew in size, then there came the day, he got upon a treadmill, hooked up with wires, and he heard the doctor say.

“When you were young, you were quite strong, athletic, limber, and great, but now you’re older and stiffer too. You’re really out of shape.

Put down the soda, put down the pizza, that goes for the gyros too, get on a diet and exercise. And stick to the program like glue.”

At first the duck didn’t listen. He grew to the size of a tank, and when he tried to go for a swim. He didn’t swim, but sank.

And now, he’s on a diet, of fruit and vegetables, it’s said. Of tomato juice and grape juice too, he’s cut out all the bread.

And if he continues this healthy path, careful of what goes in his mouth, he’ll live to see another Thanksgiving because he’ll be flying south.

Paul Martin Mulroy

Tullahoma