And the Time Is: Poems, 1958-2013

Footnote

276 Footnote The fables of Aesop the slave delighted thousands in his time and millions since. He wrote of eagles, serpents, stags and lions that could talk two thousand years ahead of Disney. Not only talk but talk with purpose and always with a touch of wit . . . A peaceful mouse discovered that kindness is wasted on the vicious. An ass that brayed in a lion’s skin was heard by all to be the ass he was. An eagle was killed by an arrow plumed with eagle feathers. The hare learned fast but last that speeders lose to plodders in the end. Each fable fills a page in Aesop’s book—one book. It’s been transmitted and translated down the centuries with no demise in sight. To all those scriveners who brag of title after title to their names as if profusion matters more than worth, I cite 277 one fable frequently forgotten. Aesop’s vixen bore a litter twice a year, trumping the lioness whose yearly whelping was a single cub. “I have so many babies,” boasted the mother-fox, “but you have only one.” “Just one,” the lioness responded while the strutting fox cavorted with her brood, “ . . . but, a lion.” ...