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

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, ursala

My heart is a furnace

Full of love that's 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, Ursala, 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 tight-fisted!)

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

And 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

And 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?

Oh, 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?

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 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 had been wandering

A fair piece away from where they were camped

Someone had told him

The 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 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, ursala 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 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