The Fish

“Everybody is a genius. But if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing that it is stupid.”

― Albert Einstein

The Fish

There was a fish in a nearby lake
Whose one ambition was his sole mistake:
He wished to be, by stranger and brother,
Deemed a genius one way or another.

One day, as he swam near the roots of a tree,
He overheard some creatures chatting fervently;
So he took in a breath and charged into the air
To catch some of the conversation there.

He spied at once two squirrels gray
Gathering nuts for some far distant day;
But the words he heard them speak in that flash
Struck him more to shock than his fall and his splash.

In that moment above he heard one squirrel say
That he would judge another in only one way:
It mattered not how strong or handsome one be
But how deftly and swift one could climb a tree.

And the fish, like his heart, sank as far as he could,
Vowing dejectedly he never again would
Pretend to be more than he could be:
For how could he be a genius if he could not climb a tree?