The Wolf and the Lamb*

One afternoon a wolf encountered

A lamb that had wandered away from its herd.

Normally, the wolf would devour

The lamb without saying a word.

 

However, this time he felt a little

Compunction for the little creature.

A feeling of compunction is not

Typically a wolflike feature.

 

And so the wolf decided that

On this occasion he would entreat it

To come up with a really good

Reason that he shouldn't eat it.

 

"A year ago you insulted me,"

Said the wolf, feigning scorn.

"That's impossible," said the little

Lamb, "for I had not yet been born."

 

"Well," said the wolf, "you eat from my pastures

As though you have been given a pass."

"Sorry," the timid lamb replied,

"But I still haven't tasted grass."

 

"Then certainly you drink from my stream,"

Continued the wolf. "That's what I think."

“But that's not true," the lamb declared.

"My mother's milk is all that I drink."

 

"Think of every possible reason;

I don't give a tinker's damn.

But I won't go without my dinner!"

The wolf cried out, and gulped down the lamb.

 

The moral? Tyrants can’t be trusted.

Don’t be fooled by what they say,

For they will use whatever excuse

They can in order to get their way.

-by Bob B (8-19-21)

*An Aesop fable retold here in verse