In the outro of Common’s “Be” album
A couple of kids were asked, “What do you want to be?”
A young girl, with a sweet little voice, replied, “I wanna be a duck.”
Not a doctor, not a queen,
Not an astronaut, or some hero on a silver screen,
A duck!
I found that deeply inspiring.
Maybe because I want to be a duck too,
You know — float gently on water so still.
Oh shit, I want to be bird,
Glide in the air so free.
Or maybe a tree —
Stand in silence while the world spins loud around me.
Or maybe I don’t know what I want to be
I just want to be something
That lets me be.