The Parables of Perspective, Enlightenment, and Longevity – by Robert Donohue

The Parable of Perspective

A man once had a friend, and this friend was behind on child support, had defaulted on a loan co-singed by his brother, and cheated on his fiancé, but he liked to drink beer and talk about science fiction, so the man thought he was a good friend. One day the friend asked the man for six hundred dollars. The friend said the man was his only salvation, because he couldn’t go to his untrustworthy brother, or devious fiancé. The man gave his friend the money without hesitation, and that was the last he ever saw of him. While drinking alone, with no one to talk to, the man often wondered why his friend had changed.

The Parable of Enlightenment

A scholar had awoken from a dream and wrote down what he had been shown about the lamp of the moon, and the lamp of the sun. In his excitement he overturned his oil lamp, which broke, but he didn’t care, because it only cost a penny.

The Parable of Longevity

The administrator at the department of Social Security who signed the checks for the oldest man in the country was so impressed by this man’s longevity that he made a pilgrimage to his home to learn his secrets. When the administrator made it to the oldest man in the country’s house, high in the mountains, his son said he wasn’t home. The administrator said he would wait, but the son said the man had been away for years. “Why did you continue to cash his checks?” The administrator demanded. The son answered: “He’ll want the money when he comes back.”

Robert Donohue‘s poetry has appeared in Better Than Starbucks, Freezeay Poetry, Grand Little Things and Oddball Magazine, among others. He lives on Long Island, NY.