Time for a story. Get your milk and cookies and sit by the woodstove.

A woman was waiting at an airport one night,
With several long hours before her flight.
She hunted for a book in the airport shops.
Bought a bag of cookies and found a place to drop.

She was engrossed in her book but happened to see,
That the man sitting beside her, as bold as could be,
Grabbed a cookie or two from the bag in between,
Which she tried to ignore to avoid a scene.
So she munched the cookies and watched the clock,
As the gutsy cookie thief diminished her stock.
She was getting more irritated as the minutes ticked by,
Thinking, "If I wasn't so nice, I would blacken his eye."

With each cookie she took, he took one too,
When only one was left, she wondered what he would do.
With a smile on his face, and a nervous laugh,
He took the last cookie and broke it in half.

He offered her half, as he ate the other,
She snatched it from him and thought... oooh, brother.
This guy has some nerve and he's also rude,
Why he didn't even show any gratitude!

She had never known when she had been so galled,
And sighed with relief when her flight was called.
She gathered her belongings and headed to the gate,
Refusing to look back at the thieving ingrate.

She boarded the plane, and sank in her seat,
Then she sought her book, which was almost complete.
As she reached in her baggage, she gasped with surprise,
There was her bag of cookies, in front of her eyes.
If mine are here, she moaned in despair,
The others were his, and he tried to share.
Too late to apologize, she realized with grief,
That she was the rude one, the ingrate, the thief.

How many times in our lives, have we absolutely known that something was a certain way, only to discover later that what we believed to be true ... was not?

-- Chris (catsy@pond.com), March 17, 1999

Answers

Too many times unfortunately. Such is the price of wisdom.

-- lparks (lparks@eurekanet.com), March 17, 1999.

This poem is interesting for the gender stereotyping, female internal reaction (seething), no external correction. Isn't it necessary that the protagonist be female, She was getting more irritated as the minutes ticked by, Thinking, "If I wasn't so nice, I would blacken his eye."

Would a guy stand for it ? Actually this poem derives from a (prose) story, a true incident reported by a man. Can't remember why he didn't sock the "offender" though.

-- Blue Himalayan (bh@k2.y), March 17, 1999.

. Got Milk ?

-- Tman (Tman@IBAgeek.com), March 17, 1999.

Thank you, Tman.

-- Greybear (greybear@home.com), March 17, 1999.

The error she (and he) made was "not communicating" - therefore, thank you for sharing the lesson that we must communicate information, not miss-statements, propaganda, or lies. Too, we must keep and open mind to new information from all sources, but temper it by recognizing that all who "share" (push ?) their knowledge and opinions forward may have only their own interests at their heart; they may not have our interests in sight at all.

-- Robert A. Cook, P.E. (Kennesaw, GA) (cook.r@csaatl.com), March 18, 1999.

Great poem, Chris. Thanks. Some years ago I realized I had the capacity to take in perfectly good information, and come up with totally ridiculous conclusions. While I'm not a proponent of "the human condition" line of thinking, if I were, I'd put this there.

Got Perspective? :-)

"Foolery, sir, does not walk about the orb like the sun; it shines everywhere." William Shakespeare, Twelfth Night

-- Donna Barthuley (moment@pacbell.net), March 18, 1999.

Chris,

Fascinating post.

What a lesson!!!

Thanks,

-- Watchful (seethesea@msn.com), March 18, 1999.

Of course, this story only holds true because the "offender" (although an unknowing one) was a known girl. The man who was sharing his cookies with her undoubtedly did so willingly, because she indeed was a girl, and as all good men know, girls have more delicate heinies and must be treated accordingly.

I dare any of you to deny it.

-- sparks (wireless@home.com), March 18, 1999.

sparks, and those pointing out sexism in this poem are missing the point, or if you didn't miss the point, for some reason you find the fact that a man would behave this way with a woman more interesting than the point this poem is trying to make.

I can easily imagine 2 very civilized men or women as the characters instead of a woman and a man.

-- Chris (catsy@pond.com), March 18, 1999.

Chris, my post was meant in jest, as if you didn't know :) It makes a difference which combination of sexes are interacting - I know, 'cause I've been letting women steal cookies all my life.

What I got out of the poem was that we should all tone down our overweenin' hubris and check our motives once in a while... maybe, just maybe, *we're* the ones who need forgiveness, not the other person.

Thanks for posting, Chris.

-- sparks (wireless@home.com), March 18, 1999.

"Chris, my post was meant in jest, as if you didn't know :)"

Here I am, cought square on the side of "humor impaired". Mr. K was right, we do need a SARC key (for sarcasm/humor).

Still, it's all yer fault, you didn't use any smileys :-p I am pretty good at guessing when the regular oldies are jesting, but you're still a stranger to me spark ;-)

-- Chris (catsy@pond.com), March 18, 1999.

Chris

So that was you that got in my cookies that night!!???

Who'd have ever thought we'd meet again in cyberspace? What a small world!

-- Hardliner (searcher@internet.com), March 19, 1999.

I forget that I'm still an unknown quantity to most veterans here, Chris, and I realize my writing lacks a certain warmth, probably because I do mostly technical stuff at the keyboard. So, from now on, when I'm being facetious, smilies are the order of the day.

-- sparks (wireless@home.com), March 19, 1999.