Wilfred Owen’s Parable Updated

by Robert Gear (December 2024)

The ostrich took his large eye, claws and his son
And carried them up a mountain
To show the world and spread the news
Told him by his own clan.
(Followed closely by some chickens, beaks bobbing)
–
The ostrich held his son down
Then tied him up.
–
The youngster asked his father
“What would you with me, father, why do you frown?
Why would you kill your own son?  Catch rather
The rooster caught in a thicket. He is there to kill,
Strike him and we may recover all.
And you are strong still.
I have read that an angel must stay your arm.
–
Can’t you understand?”
–
But the ostrich would not, and slew his son.
And all the lands of Europe, fell, one by one.
–

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Robert Gear is a Contributing Editor to New English Review who now lives in the American Southwest. He is a retired English teacher and has co-authored with his wife several texts in the field of ESL. He is the author of If In a Wasted Land, a politically incorrect dystopian satire.

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