Three stories

After Luke 10:25-37

A story told,

a story consisting of three stories

a trilogy of a kind

a trilogy consisting of seven stories, actually

the story of a man, robbed and beaten

(is it important that we never know who he was?)

the story of a priest, a cameo role

the story of a Levite, another cameo role

the story of a Samaritan

the story of an innkeeper

the story of a lawyer who first asked the question

the story of the storyteller who answered it

a collection of short stories

some no more than a line or two

packed into a handful of sentences

The question is asked as a test, a trap

the expert, who knows far more 

than this ignorant country rube ever could,

stands and asks his question, a smirk implied

The storyteller recognizes the question, the trap,

for what it is, and the smirk behind it,

and he answers a question with a question,

so how do you read the law? (implied: 

you’re the self-acknowledged expert, 

you’re the lawyer, how do you read it?)

and the expert, as they often did, as they often do, 

answered correctly. He knew his stuff.

He wasn’t a self-acknowledged expert

for no good reason

So the storyteller, seeing beneath

the smirk to the emptiness underneath,

says that’s right,

now go do it – do it and live,

and let me tell you a story.

Photograph by Fatima Fuentes via Unsplash. Used with permission.