You Man!
Two wolves went after a chicken from a farm. They caught it and began snatching it back and forth from one another, saliva dripping from the corners of their mouths. Each grew angry with the other at his desire to take exclusive possession of the chicken. In the end one of them, getting fed up, said to his rival with anger, “Do you want to finish her off all by yourself, you man!?”
No sooner had the second wolf heard the expression “you man” directed at him then he threw the torn chicken far away and pounced, red-faced, on his companion. He clung to him with fangs and claws, growling and saying “how dare you insult me you bastard!?” He only let go when his companion was swimming in a pool of blood. Then he snatched the shredded chicken in his mouth and ran off far away to devour it.
The Tree and the Storm
The giant tree didn’t listen to the advice of her friends to not defy the heavy storm which was slowly approaching the forest. Instead she decided to sharpen her feelings of defiance so as to teach the storm a lesson she would never forget. No sooner had the mad armies of the storm begun to invade the forest than all the trees bent down in respect and obedience to her greatness. She moved through them with powerful currents and waves as she pleased. She was intoxicated with a flood of happiness but, when she saw the giant tree giving stern commands to her leaves and branches with total firmness in order to prove that she was greater than her and her completely unjustifiable madness, she became enraged.
After a few hours calm had spread over the forest.
The trees remained as they had been with the exception of a few losses. As for the giant tree, she remained tall and strong without having dropped a single leaf, but she had become a tree of stone.
The Heartbeats
“This is truly boring,” one of the heartbeats in the man’s body said wearily to her colleagues, “from this creature’s embryonic stage until now we work and work without stopping for a moment while he sleeps and relaxes and pampers himself however he pleases!”
Just then the man began to run at great speed. The heartbeats mobilized and began to throb strongly. In a little while he got tired and sat panting on the nearest bench.
“Look at this annoying man,” the heartbeat continued, “he forces us to muster all of our energy, and then he takes it easy all of a sudden! What is this oppression?”
Some of her colleagues shouted in support, but another heartbeat rebuked them saying, “Stop your rubbish. Life in its entirety depends on us. The responsibility on our shoulders is enormous. We have to work at this beating day and night because this work is the secret of our existence.”
And so the heartbeats continued working in silence.
Man and the Law of Nature
Man arrested the Law of Nature and put her in a diamond cage. He caressed her with his genius and mocked her with the products of his reason. To celebrate the occasion he drank dozens of glasses of wine and fell down drunk, pulses of happiness settling in his heart. The Law of Nature snuck her hand over to one of the glasses and emptied it into her stomach down to the last trace of its perfume so that she might forget her prison. She grabbed a second and third and a fourth. She lost her balance and weaved from side to side. She laughed and cried and vomited and beat her head against the diamond bars. She fell down, her forehead covered in blood. She mustered the remnants of her eroded powers and finished off the rest of the wine. She fell into the lap of death, who hugged her close together with Man.
Who Deserves a Muzzle?
The owner of the house, wanting to sleep soundly, put the muzzle on the dog. But no sooner had he done so than a bloody fight broke out between him and his sharp tempered wife over something or other. Their shouts shook the corners of the house and they disturbed the neighbors with their screaming. The dog looked at them astonished saying to himself, “Who deserves this muzzle. . . us or them? Who deserves these collars that they wrap around our necks as if they would strangle us? We endure their cruelty and their arrogance and give them abundantly of our fidelity such as they don’t even give each other. When we want to give vent to our repressed feelings in our beautiful barking tongue— just as they do in their language despite its inherent inanity— they muzzle our mouths for no purpose other than to exercise their madness.” He sighed in agony saying, “Our grandfathers spoke the truth when they said ‘a muzzle for men, eloquence for dogs!!’”
Zebra Running on Two Legs
While a herd of zebras grazed on the plain, one of them noticed a man running in flight from a nearby prison wearing the special uniform of prisoners that is like the colors of those animals.
“Look. . . look at that zebra running on two legs!” he said to his friends with surprise. Everyone stared in wonder.
“His form is truly strange,” said another, “I wonder where he’s coming from?” The answer came from a friend: “I’ve heard of a gathering place near here that includes this kind of zebra.”
Here the elder zebra, who was respected by all and considered as their sage, sighed and said in a deep voice “This is one of the wonders of this world, dear ones.”
As the fleeing prisoner disappeared from sight their eyes remained fixed on their elder in surprise.
A Bomb in the Traditions
I planted a nuclear bomb in the folds of worn out traditions. After the explosion they remained as they had been, only more worn out than ever.
The Sold Nations
After the transaction, the merchant put the money in his pocket. One of the bills said to her colleague with annoyance: “I’m tired of moving from hand to hand so easily. We need stability so badly!”
Her colleague answered her with sadness: “We were born for this end my dear.” She sighed and then resumed her speech, “We are like nations that have been sold, imprinted with thousands of fingerprints and crammed into thousands of pockets until they are in tatters.”
Minutes later, after another transaction, the merchant pulled one of the bills from his pocket hurriedly. She didn’t even have enough time to say good bye to her colleague before she settled into a cold wallet.
Bone Separation
The prison guard brought in an enormous pile of bones and told the prisoner with haughtiness “if you can separate the animal bones from the human ones we will set you free right away.” He went away with a sadistic laugh. The prisoner spent years trying in vain to separate out the bones. Eventually he fell dead over the pile and his own bones, little by little, were lost among the others.
A Handkerchief of Freedom
The dictator sneezed. He pulled Freedom from his pants pocket and blew his nose. Then he threw her away in the wastebasket.
News Ticker
As the anchorman began to read the headlines, the news ticker appeared at the bottom of the screen announcing the latest political and economic developments in the region and the world.
Soon, as information increased and points of tension and international conflict grew, another ticker appeared. And a little later, with tension and hatred still rising, a third one moved across the screen.
The situation continued in this way until the anchorman disappeared entirely behind the news tickers that filled the screen to the very top. But even so he couldn’t hide his embarrassment and confusion about the papers filled with new developments of all kinds that were piling up around him.
The Diamond and the Coal
The two young men, one rich and one poor, were discussing their respective futures. The rich one put a big diamond down on the table and said excitedly: “This is my future.”
The poor one put a piece of coal on the table and said sadly: “This is mine.”
Then each one went on his way. But the diamond felt a longing for her origins and drew close to the piece coal and hugged her tightly.
Alas !
The Universe lamented his fate, saying “Alas! Don’t I have the right to take up even a little space here?!
The Cage
The bird looks sadly through the bars of the cage at the vast space perfumed with the scent of freedom. He dreams of the treasure of which he was long ago deprived. He inhales deeply its heavenly smell and sorrow sears his heart. He considers his brothers and his fellow birds who enjoy the fruits of that treasure and says to himself with anguish: “How much I wish I could be with them, spreading my wings wide, surrendering to the waves of air and the refreshing gusts, enjoying freedom’s boundless wealth!”
He looks at the bars of the cage with a look heavy with the fetters of captivity. He feels as if they were wrapped around his heart with utmost cruelty. His throat fills with a hymn of wounded pride.
But the bright white specter of freedom appears suddenly one day, opening his arms when the bird’s owner forgets to lock the cage after putting food inside. The innumerable wings of the bird’s soul start to tremble before the two wings of his body do. He surrenders to the azure waves, flying through their colorful current, rising and falling, amazed at their wonders which he had all but forgotten.
He pursues his flight enthusiastically, searching for his family and his friends of whom slavery’s bars had deprived him. He swoops through freedom’s atmosphere, enchanted by her wonderful melodies, looking carefully in all directions. The captivating perfume of his pride, which has now completely recovered, mixes with the remains of the scents of his loved ones scattered in the air.
Pearls of happiness lie interspersed among hot coals of questions: “Where are you my beloved ones? In what space do you fly? My longing for you is the rope of light that binds me to you and that will guide me towards you no matter how much time should pass!
After a few days, as he flew near a high mountain, the bird recognized one of his brothers. He set out towards him panting from gusts of happiness while freedom gazed at the coming together of the brothers’ souls and the harmony of their bodies, and added to her store of laughs a new enchanted one.
The two of them, setting out with their friends for journeys brimming with the elixir of happiness, formed a swooping flock intoxicated by lofty spiritual feelings for which until now no name has been discovered.
But the bird who had been set free suddenly felt a strange body growing inside him, a body he knew well, growing heavier and colder in opposition to the warmth of his own. It was a cage made from the strongest kind of steel. The bird was shocked at the horror of this feeling. The cage grew broader and heavier forcing the wretched bird to fly dizzily up and down amidst the astonishment of his friends. Finally when the weight of the cage had grown far too heavy for him to fly he fell at the edge of the forest.
He became easy prey for the first carnivorous animal that passed his way.