A woodman went to the forest one day
To beg a favor of some of the trees.
He needed wood for an ax handle
And asked, "Would you help me, please?"

The noblest trees agreed to help him,
Thinking it was a modest request.
The very fact that the woodman had asked them
Was reassuring. They were impressed.

And so the trees offered the woodman
A young sapling of the finest wood,
Out of which he started to fashion
The most exquisite handle he could.

As soon as he finished making his ax,
He threw himself into his work,
Chopping down trees. The poor trees wondered,
"Why did we even help this ****?"

He even cut down some of the noblest.
The trees watched him with disbelief.
They had offered a gift to him,
And he turned out to be worse than a thief!

"It's our fault," the noble trees said.
"Unfortunately, we are to blame.
If we hadn't given the sapling to him,
We wouldn't have to die in shame."

When we reflect on the morals of fables,
We find an extra way to enjoy them.
The moral? Fools are they who give
Their enemies the means to destroy them.

-by Bob B (8-16-21)

°An Aesop fable, "The Trees and the Ax," retold here in verse

BIDEN (to Bush)
I have to say,
Because of you, man,
We have this mess
In Afghanistan.

BUSH
It's not my fault.
We were attacked
On 9/11,
As a matter of fact.
If we hadn't gone
To Afghanistan
What would have been
Al-Qaeda's next plan?

BIDEN (to Bush)
But wait a minute!
Al-Qaeda was routed.
But let's talk about
Other things you flouted.
Like the truth when you said--
Like a vicious hawk--
That there were reasons
To invade Iraq.

OBAMA (to Bush)
Ah, so it's your fault.

BUSH
No!
WE went there
Because of the production
Of dangerous weapons
Of mass destruction.

OBAMA (to Bush)
But how did they ever
Get on your list--
The WMDs--
For they DIDN'T exist?

OBAMA, BIDEN (to Bush)
See, it's your fault!

BUSH
No, it isn't!
I decided
As commander in chief
That Saddam Hussein
Was causing too much grief.
I had to do
Something about it.
So, I had my team
Try to figure out it.

OBAMA, BIDEN
Figure it out,
Is what you mean.
But come on now:
You've GOTTA come clean.

BUSH (to Obama)
Wait!
You're the one
Who pulled our troops
Out of Iraq,
Which then allowed groups
Of ISIS fighters
To spread their hate
As they tried to form
An Islamic state.

So it's your fault.

OBAMA (to Bush)
The Iraqis wanted
Us to leave.
I didn't have
Any tricks up my sleeve.
The war in Iraq
Was a major distraction,
It didn't help matters,
Not even by a fraction.
Because of you,
People lost their focus
On Afghanistan
With all your hocus-pocus.

BUSH, BIDEN (to Obama)
But then you suddenly
Had the urge
To initiate
A giant surge
Of troops again
In Afghanistan.
What the hell
Were you thinking, man?

TRUMP
You all bear
Responsibility.
The war was a lesson
In futility.

BUSH, OBAMA, BIDEN (to Trump)
You're the one
Who spun his wheels.
With Taliban forces
You made some deals
Without including
Officials from
The government.
And that was dumb!
Did YOU perhaps show
With your Sharpie and your chart
That by May 1
The troops would depart?

TRUMP (to Obama and Biden)
Now wait a minute!
Part of your campaign
Was troop withdrawal
From the Afghan domain.

BIDEN (to Trump)
And that's what I did.
I followed through
With an agreement
That was made by you.
It wasn't something
That I reversed.
I just moved it
To August 31st.
Who could know how long
The government would last
And that the Taliban
Would move in so fast?

BUSH, OBAMA, TRUMP (to Biden)
Then it's YOUR fault!

THE PEOPLE (to Bush, Biden, Obama, and Trump)
It's EVERYBODY'S fault…
Along with Congress
And others we could blame.
But stop pointing fingers
And end this stupid game!
You ALL bear the fault.
Be that as it may,
What is done is done.
That was yesterday.
We need to save lives,
So, find a way somehow
To try to figure out
What to do now.

BIDEN, OBAMA, TRUMP, BUSH (pointing at one another)
But it's still your fault!

THE PEOPLE
Stop!

-by Bob B (8-18-21)

°Very loosely based on Stephen Sondheim's song "Your Fault" from INTO THE WOODS

A farmer went to the market one day
To buy another *** for his farm.
He had a few in his stable already,
But adding one more would do no harm.

He came across a nice-looking beast,
In wonderful shape. No denial.
But in order for him to be sure,
He asked if he could take it on trial.

"I want to know what he's like," he said.
"And see how my other animals find him."
The owner agreed, and the farmer left.
The *** plodded along behind him.

"I hope he's like my better workers;
The other ones are as slow as molasses,"
The farmer mumbled. Back at the farm,
He put the *** with the other *****.

After surveying the new surroundings,
The new *** felt that he was able
To choose wisely, and so he befriended
The laziest, greediest *** in the stable.

After observing the ***'s behavior,
Immediately--that same afternoon--
The farmer returned the beast to the owner,
Who was surprised to see him so soon.

"Back already?" the owner said.
"I guess he didn't pass your test.
How did you decide so quickly?
Didn't he get along with the rest?"

“It didn’t take me long to see
His true nature,” the farmer replied.
"He sidled up to the laziest ***
In the stable as soon as he got inside."

To figure out the moral here,
We don't have to dig very deep:
People can know a lot about us
By the company we keep.

-by Bob B (8-14-21)

°An Aesop fable, "The *** and Its Purchaser," retold here in verse

Facing the inevitable
Is not always easy to do.
Call it facing reality;
That is what it's tantamount to.

For almost twenty years American
Troops have been in Afghanistan.
Propping up an unstable system
And fighting against the Taliban.

Now we are going to pull out our troops
And stop maintaining the status quo.
Many people feel we should
Have done it many years ago.

Cracking down on Al-Qaeda was
Our original reason for being there.
But after all this time it's hard
To handle what we now are seeing there.

Talks between the Taliban forces
And our previous administration,
Without including Afghan officials,
Have led to a tenuous situation.

Resulting from all the "cease fire" deals,
The Taliban were able to seize
All the regional capitals,
And then take over Kabul with ease.

Yes, the Taliban takeover has
Happened with a speed that is numbing.
Didn't our experts anticipate it?
Afghan forces saw it coming.

Some people say that we should stay there
To fight for the Afghans. The reason's clear cut.
Others say that that is complete
Nonsense--stay there and fight for what?

Giving the Afghans a certain amount of
Stability has been a huge endeavor.
But most Americans do not want
To stay there and fight insurgents forever.

While the country has made advances,
It is depressing to watch it careen
Into utter chaos. And now,
What happens next remains to be seen.

What's crucial at this moment, however,
Is that it's incumbent on us to conceive
Of any possible way to help
Afghans who fear for their lives to leave.

What a jam we find ourselves in
When leaders make unwise decisions!
Then others have to clean up the mess,
Which leads to even greater divisions.

-by Bob B (8-17-21)

As the day was drawing to a close,
The late afternoon was turning cold.
A goatherd summoned all his goats together
In order to return them to the fold.

Suddenly, one goat chose to stray
And didn't want to join up with the rest.
The goatherd knew that if they didn't hurry,
They would not get home till dusk at best.

He shouted, but the goat ignored his orders.
Furious, he threw a heavy stone
And hit the goat, breaking one of its horns.
The goatherd then let out a fearful moan.

"Oh, no! I'm in trouble now!" he cried.
"For me, this is going to mean disaster."
Distraught, he begged the poor goat not to say
A word about his actions to their master.

"Don't be stupid," said the rebellious goat.
"My broken horn would stand out in the herd
As if to cry out, 'Hey there, look at me!'
Even if I didn't say a word.

"So here is some advice for you, my friend:
Hiding certain things is not forbidden,
But you will come off looking like a fool
If you try to hide what can't be hidden."

-by Bob B (8-13-21)

°An Aesop fable, "The Goatherd and the Goat," retold here in verse

When ideology joins brutality
And deadly fire rains down from above--
When plaintive human cries punctuate the skies
And the hawk devours the gentle dove--
Then we should all assess what our hearts express
And wonder if we've done all that we can.
But who can mitigate vicious, cruel hate
And suffering in poor Afghanistan?

When uncertainty belies stability
While the Taliban are on the move,
Insurgents will demand to have the upper hand,
Although other countries disapprove.
Twenty years of knowing how the winds were blowing,
Twenty years of guessing from afar…
Our underestimations and gross miscalculations
Had optimists all wishing on a star.

As hopes begin to ebb, the spider spins its web
And patiently awaits its helpless prey.
Extremist factions gain the power to remain.
How sad for the poor souls who must stay!
The day has turned to night; the Taliban will fight,
Determined to pursue their cruel quest.
They'll erase the past as they remain steadfast.
The Bamiyan Buddhas can attest.

People will cry "Shame!" and try to pass the blame.
At this point that is meaningless to do.
For years plans were unveiled, and many of them failed.
Here we go again: déjà vu.
So what happens now? Does anyone know how
The Afghans can withstand the cruel regime?
Sympathies fall flat. Just remember that
Things are often much worse than they seem.

What was bound to occur is not what we'd prefer
For the people's sake to see unroll.
The Taliban has more money than before,
And that has helped the rebels gain control.
It's hard not to obsess about the ghastly mess
Created by the brutal Taliban.
One can't overstate the sadness of the fate
Of all who suffer in Afghanistan.

-by Bob B (8-15-21)

A miller, with his son in tow,
Was taking their *** to the market to seek
A buyer for the animal.
They needed the money, for times were bleak.

Soon they encountered a group of girls
Who giggled and laughed and starting chiding
The two, by saying, "You are fools.
Why are you walking when you could be riding?"

And so the miller made the boy
Mount the *** while he walked.
After some time, they ran across
A group of friends and stopped and talked.

"You'll spoil your son," the friends remarked,
"By letting him ride while you trudge along.
You should ride and let him get
Some exercise to make him strong."

Therefore, the miller exchanged places
With his son and rode on the ***.
Soon a party of women and children
Approached the miller and son en masse.

"What a selfish old man!" they said.
"He rides in comfort while his kid
Must plod along behind him. Hmmm.
Has the old guy flipped his lid?"

So then the miller told the lad
To sit behind him. After a while
They ran into some travelers whom
They'd seen approaching the last quarter mile.

"Is that your ***," they asked, "or is it
One that you have merely rented?"
"It's mine to take to the market to sell,"
The miller said, slightly tormented.

The others replied, "The animal
Will be so tired when you get to town
That no one will even look at it.
If you were smart, you'd both get down."

The two climbed off the ***'s back.
To minimize damage control,
They tied the ***'s hooves together,
And through its legs they slid a pole.

And so they carried the *** who hung
Upside down from the pole. The sight
Had to be insanely bizarre.
And you and I know that ***** aren't light.

Onward to town they continued.
When the villagers saw them come near,
The scene was so ridiculous
That all they could do was laugh and jeer.

They had to cross a wooden bridge,
The miller and son--still market bound.
All of a sudden the *** broke its ties
And fell into the river and drowned.

The miller stood there stunned and ashamed.
He said to his weary son, "Let's go.
Why we listened to all those people
And all their advice, I don't know."

On their way home, he said to the boy,
"I hope you learned a lesson, my son.
And that is when you try to please all,
You will end up pleasing none."

-by Bob B (8-12-21)

°An Aesop fable, "The Miller, His Son, and Their ***," retold here in verse