Fable
I have been reading Aesop’s Fables and playing around with the form. I’m having trouble coming up with a moral to this story. One idea is “even a beggar knows good trash from bad.” Any other ideas?
Trash Talk
The old man snarled at all who passed him. He sat on his porch daily looking out at the world with a wrinkled frown.
“Why aren’t you in school?” He yelled at the kids passing by.
“Get your mongrel off my lawn?” He yelled at the dog walker passing by.
A woman shuffled down the sidewalk. A scarf covered her head and rags covered her body. The man called out, “Get away from my house.”
The woman appeared not to hear the old man. She leaned over his garbage pail—the one that sat out there on his curb.
“Get the hell away from my property.” The man stood. His frown deepened.
The woman reached inside the can.
“Hey! The man lifted his fist. “Get out of there!”
The woman’s hand emerged holding an empty bottle. Sunlight reflected off of it onto the concrete.
“That’s mine,” the man called out.
“You have thrown it in the trash,” the woman said. “And perhaps I have use for it.”
“You put that back where it belongs,” the man said.
“And where is that?” The woman asked. “Where is it that your trash belongs?”
The woman’s words stopped the man. He sat back down and mumbled, “Take it.”
But the woman put the bottle back inside the trash. She walked away.
“What? My trash isn’t good enough for you?” The man called after her.
Comments
That’s a good one. I like the wording, too—very “aesopian.”
jd
Jan 16 February 09
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“A person should not hoard what he has already discarded.”
(A fancier way of saying: “Let it go.”)
Jane Kokernak 14 February 09