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Monkey And |
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BearDown in the green hay |
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Where monkey and bear usually lay |
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They woke from a stable-boy's cry |
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He said; someone come quick! |
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The horses got loose, got grass-sick! |
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They'll founder! |
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Fain, they'll die |
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What is now known by the sorrel and the roan? |
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By the chestnut, and the bay, and the gelding grey? |
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It is: stay by the gate you are given |
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And remain in your place, for your season |
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And had the overfed dead but listened |
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To that high-fence, horse-sense, wisdom... |
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Did you hear that, |
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Bear? Said monkey |
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We'll get out of here, fair and square |
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They've left the gate open wide! |
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SoMy bride |
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Here is my hand, where is your paw? |
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Try and understand my plan, |
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UrsalaMy heart is a furnace |
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Full of love that's just, and earnest |
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Now; you know that we must unlearn this |
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Allegiance to a life of service |
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And no longer answer to that heartless |
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Hay-monger, nor be his accomplice(that charlatan, with artless hustling!) |
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But; Ursala, we've got to eat something |
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And earn our keep, while still within |
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The borders of the land that man has girded(all double-bolted and tight-fisted!) |
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Until we reach the open country |
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A-steeped in milk and honey |
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Will you keep your fancy clothes on, for me? |
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Can you bear a little longer to wear that leash? |
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My love, I swear by the air |
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I breathe: |
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Sooner or later, you'll bare your teeth |
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But for now, just dance, darling |
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C'mon, will you dance, my darling? |
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Darling, there's a place for us |
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Can we go, before |
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I turn to dust? |
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Oh my darling, there's a place for us |
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Oh darling |
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C'mon will you dance, my darling? |
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Oh, the hills are groaning with excess |
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Like a table ceaselessly being set |
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Oh my darling, we will get there yet |
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They trooped past the guards, |
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Past the coops, and the fields, and the farmyards |
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All night, till finally: |
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The space they gained grew |
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Much farther than the stone that bear threw |
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To mark where they'd stop for tea |
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But walk a little faster |
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And don't look backwards |
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Your feast is to the |
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East, which lies a little past the pasture |
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When the blackbirds hear tea whistling, they rise and clap |
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And their applause caws the kettle black |
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And we can't have none of that! |
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Move along, |
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Bear; there, there; that's that |
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Though cast in plaster |
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Our Ursala's heart beat faster |
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Than monkey's ever will |
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But still; |
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They have got to pay the bills |
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Hadn't they? |
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That is what the monkey'd say |
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So, with the courage of a clown, or a cur |
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Or a kite, jerking tight at its tether |
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In her dun-brown gown of fur |
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And her jerkin' of swansdown and leather |
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Bear would sway on her hind legs; |
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The organ would grind dregs of song, for the pleasure |
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Of the children, who'd shriek |
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Throwing coins at her feet |
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Then recoiling in terror |
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Sing, dance, darling |
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C'mon, will you dance, my darling? |
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Oh darling, there's a place for us |
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Can we go, before |
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I turn to dust? |
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Oh my darling, there's a place for us |
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Oh darling |
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C'mon, will you dance, my darling? |
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You keep your eyes fixed on the highest hill |
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Where you'll ever-after eat your fill |
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Oh my darling, dear, mine |
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If you dance |
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Dance, darling, and |
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I love you still |
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Deep in the night |
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Shone a weak and miserly light |
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Where the monkey shouldered his lamp |
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Someone had told him |
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The bear had been wandering |
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A fair piece away from where they were camped |
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Someone had told him |
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The bear'd been sneaking away |
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To the seaside caverns, to bathe |
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And the thought troubled the monkey |
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For he was afraid of spelunking down in those caves |
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Also afraid what the village people would say |
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If they saw the bear in that state; |
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Lolling and splashing obscenely |
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Well, it seemed irrational, really; washing that face |
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Washing that matted and flea-bit pelt |
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In some sea-spit-shine, old kelp dripping with brine |
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But monkey just laughed, and he muttered; |
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When she comes back, |
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Ursala will be bursting with pride |
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Till I jump up! |
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Saying: you've been rolling in muck! |
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Saying: you smell of garbage and grime! |
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But far out |
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Far outBy now |
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By nowFar out, by now, |
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Bear ploughed' |
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Cause she would not drown: |
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First the outside-legs of the bear |
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Up and fell down, in the water, like knobby garters |
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Then the outside-arms of the bear |
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Fell off, as easy as if sloughed from boiled tomatoes |
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Low'red in a genteel curtsy |
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Bear shed the mantle of her diluvian shoulders; |
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And, with a sigh, |
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She allowed the burden of belly to drop like an apron full of boulders |
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If you could hold up her threadbare |
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Coat to the light where it's worn translucent in places |
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You'd see spots where |
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Almost every night of the year |
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Bear had been mending suspending that baseness |
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Now her coat drags through the water |
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Bagging, with a life's-worth of hunger, limitless minnows; |
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In the magnetic embrace |
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Balletic and glacial of |
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Bear's insatiable shadow; |
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Left there! |
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Left there! |
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When Bear left |
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BearLeft there! |
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Left there! |
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When Bear stepped clear of |
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BearSooner or later you'll bury your teeth |
