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A Tale of Two Geese
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prose on poetry
A lad had one day climbed the fence and walked into a wood there to find a goose. It was a plain and ordinary looking fowl. But the more he spent time with it, the more he found it to be special. This goose had at certain moments in a month laid a golden egg which it allowed the lad to take home with him.
For as long as the goose stayed close to its home, it would be happy and healthy and lay golden eggs. One day, the lad thought to take the goose home and very quickly the goose became sad and weak. Gradually the goose lost its ability to lay golden eggs. And the lad became distressed and didn't know what to do.
He called to his brother who had known a bit about the goose; all that he could do to help was to try to make things the way they used to be. He accompanied his brother to the wood to bring back the ailing goose. Meanwhile, a wild tempest blew and they lost sight of each other. The lad could not be found and the goose never laid another golden egg. His brother was sad and decided to set camp near the home of the goose.
Each day the boy came to visit the goose's home. And when he could, at other times, he was able to sleep over and spend more time outdoors. One day a goose that had grown a golden feather appeared in the wood, and at certain times it allowed the boy to take a golden feather home. This gave him some consolation even while he still blamed himself for his brother's loss. One day he brought the goose home to show his family but then it would not grow golden feathers and started to grow weak and feeble.
The boy took the fading goose and threw it over the fence into the wood. Upset, he ran to his room and opened his study drawer from which he pulled out a golden feather and a golden egg to remind him of better days. He then packed them away in a box and hid them in the cellar. He concentrated on his studies and lived a normal life as much as he could. As a young man the fantasy had dimmed in memory but the reality of the geese would remain hidden away in a box.
Each time he felt unsure or sad or lonely, he would walk down to the cellar and open up the box to look at the golden egg and the golden feather. But he put them quickly away because that life was no longer his. And when he did walk the wood he thought he sometimes caught a glimpse of the goose. But part of him did not want to see it ever again, even if it was the last connection he had with his brother, who never returned home, lost in the storm.
And now that his childhood had been brusquely taken away by a fairy tale; his grown up slumber would be forever graced by geese-filled dreams.
~ imPRESSions ~
