99 Fables

5. The Young Poet and The Worm

5 the young poet and the worm A YOUNG POET STOOD BY A riverbank and looked at the world about him. It was summer and the countryside was green; fruit hung in the orchards, cattle ate in the meadows of white clover, and the yellow grain waved and ripened in the fields. It was then the poet knew how greatly God had honored mankind and with what abundant and varied gifts, and overcome with emotion he cried out, "How beautiful, how wide, how splendid is the world-this rich, perfect world which God created for man's pleasure!" [ 8 ] An earthwonn listened to the poet's words, appraising his plump, pink body. He said, "Perhaps the perfection of the world was made for the pleasure of man, as you think. I don't know about that, but there's one thing I do know from my own experience: the perfection of man was assuredly made for the pleasure of worms." ~~.-~,- ....~ -'~" ...