Monkey & Bear

Down in the green hay

Where monkey and bear usually lay

They woke from a stable-boy's cry

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 that you are given

And remain in your place, for your season

And had the overfed dead but listened

To that high-fence, horse-sense, wisdom

"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?

Oh my darling there's a place for us

Oh darling. C'mon will you dance?

My darling, oh the hills are groaning with excess

Like a table ceaselessly being set

Oh 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

And 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 would 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 off 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?

Oh 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?

You keep your eyes fixed on the highest hill

Where you'll ever-after eat your fill

Oh my darling…dear…mine…if you dance

Dance! darling and I will love you still

Deep in the night

Shone a weak and miserly light

Where the monkey shouldered his lamp

Someone had told him that bear'd been wandering a fair piece away

From where they were camped

Someone had told him that bear'd 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

Also afraid what the village people would say

If they saw the bear in that state

Lolling and splashing obscenely

Well, it seemed irrationally washing that face

Washing that matted and flea-bit pelt in some sea's beach and old kelp dripping with brine

The 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

'Cause 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 this 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)