Monkey & Bear

Down in the green hay

Where monkey and bear usually lay

They woke from a stable-boy’s cry

He said: “someone come quick —

The horses got loose, got grass-sick —

They’ll founder! Fain, they’ll die.”

What is now known by the sorrel and the roan?

By the chestnut, and the bay, and the gelding grey?

It is: stay by the gate you are given

Remain in your place, for your season

O, had the overfed dead but listened

To that high-fence, horse-sense, wisdom…

But

“Did you hear that, Bear?” said

Monkey, “we’ll get out of here, fair and square

They've left the gate open wide!

“So, my bride

“Here is my hand. Where is your paw?

Try and understand my plan, Ursula

My heart is a furnace

Full of love that is just, and earnest

Now you know that we must unlearn this

Allegiance to a life of service

And no longer answer to that heartless

Hay-monger, nor be his accomplice —

(that charlatan, with artless hustling!)

But Ursula, we’ve got to eat something

And earn our keep, while still within

The borders of the land that man has girded

(all double-bolted and tightfisted!)

Until we reach the open country

A-steeped in milk and honey

Will you keep your fancy clothes on, for me?

Can you bear a little longer to wear that leash?

“My love, I swear by the air I breathe:

Sooner or later, you’ll bare your teeth

“But for now, just dance, darling

C’mon, will you dance, my darling?

Darling, there’s a place for us;

Can we go, before I turn to dust?

My darling there’s a place for us

“Oh darling. C'mon will you dance

My darling?

The hills are groaning with excess

Like a table ceaselessly being set

O my darling, we will get there yet”

They trooped past the guards

Past the coops, and the fields, and the

Farmyards, all night, till finally

The space they gained

Grew much farther than

The stone that Bear threw

To mark where they’d stop for tea

But

“Walk a little faster

Don’t look backwards —

“your feast is to the East, which lies a little past the pasture

“When the blackbirds hear tea whistling they rise and clap

Their applause caws the kettle black

And we can’t have none of that!

Move along, Bear; there, there; that’s that.”

(Though cast in plaster

Our Ursala’s heart beat faster

Than monkey’s ever will.)

But still

They have got to pay the bills

Hadn’t they?

That is what the monkey'd say

So, with the courage of a clown, or a cur

Or a kite, jerking tight at its tether

In her dun-brown gown of fur

And her jerkin of

Swansdown and leather

Bear would sway on her hind legs;

The organ would grind dregs of song

For the pleasure

Of the children who’d shriek

Throwing coins at her feet

Then recoiling in terror

Sing, “dance, darling

C'mon, will you dance, my darling?

Darling, there’s a place for us;

Can we go, before I turn to dust?

Oh, my darling there’s a place for us

“Darling

C'mon, will you dance, my darling?

Keep your eyes fixed on the highest hill

Where you’ll ever-after eat your fill

O my darling…dear…mine…if you dance

Dance, darling: and I'll love you still.”

Deep in the night

Shone a weak and miserly light

Where the monkey shouldered his lamp

Someone had told him the

Bear'd been wandering a fair piece away

From where they were camped

Someone had told him

The bear had been sneaking away

To the seaside caverns, to bathe;

And the thought troubled the monkey

For he was afraid of spelunking

Down in those caves

And also afraid what the

Village people would say

If they saw the bear in that state —

Lolling and splashing obscenely

Well, it seemed irrational, really

Washing that face;

Washing that matted and flea-bit pelt

In some sea-spit-shine —

Old kelp dripping with brine

But monkey just laughed, and he muttered

“When she comes back, Ursula will be bursting with pride —

Till I jump up!

Saying, ‘You've been rolling in muck!

Saying, ‘You smell of garbage and grime!’”

But far out, far out

By now, by now —

Far out, by now, Bear ploughed

Because she would not drown:

First the outside-legs of the bear

Up and fell down, in the water, like knobby garters

Then the outside-arms of the bear

Fell off, as easy as if sloughed

From boiled tomatoes

Low’red in a genteel curtsy

Bear shed the mantle of her

Diluvian shoulders;

And, with a sigh

She allowed the burden of belly to drop

Like an apron full of boulders

If you could hold up her

Threadbare coat to the light

Where it’s worn translucent in places

You’d see spots where

Almost every night of the year

Bear had been mending

Suspending that baseness

Now her coat drags through the water

Bagging, with a life’s-worth of hunger

Limitless minnows;

In the magnetic embrace

Balletic and glacial

Of bear’s insatiable shadow —

Left there! Left there!

When bear left bear;

Left there, left there

When bear stepped clear of bear

(Sooner or later you'll bury your teeth)