The Big Picture by Lupita Eyde-Tucker

I don’t need anything
from your trip across town
though I always wrack my brain
for that elusive thing
that might complete the chore,
the day, perhaps my life.

I don’t need anything
from the store, nothing
that can be bought or sold
definitely not one more thing
to add to the pile of things
filling up my closets now.

I don’t need anything, really,
except a moment of your time
to look at this picture of a duck.
It’s not a great picture,
But that’s not the point,
you see, I am the duck.

Indulge me a moment longer.
to look at the duck a different way.
See something new?
It’s also a picture of a rabbit.
I am the rabbit. Yes, I can also be a rabbit.

I don’t need anything. Nothing
bought or sold, but thanks
for taking time to look at my picture,
which is really what I want most.
But please—don’t get stuck on the rabbit.
I am still, and will also always be, the duck.

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Lupita Eyde-Tucker was raised in New Jersey and Guayaquil, Ecuador. She writes poetry in English and Spanish, and has studied poetry at Bread Loaf, the Palm Beach Poetry Festival, and is a Fellow at The Watering Hole. Her poems have appeared in Naugatuck River Review, Glass Mountain, and Baltimore Review. In 2017 she was nominated for a Pushcart Prize.