So, it’s three in the morning
and a man in a gorilla suit
is running across my lawn.
Quigley runs figure-eights—yapping, yelping.
The light in McKevitt’s window flickers
on then off—he doesn’t see this jerk
stumbling and slopping about the dark yard,
pulling at the plush love handles
of his unwieldy suit—its zipper
just visible in blue moonlight.
He’s trying not to step on the little black dog nipping at his paw.
I pace at the window hoping he will leave.
I pace some more and fumble
at the nightstand for a cigarette.
I beat my chest to scare this thing away
and though I feel foolish, I grunt.
I grunt and expect him to listen to reason—
he doesn’t and collapses near the shed.
Quigley watches him—curiously cocking his head.
He licks the rubber face with his pink tongue
thinking this monkey’s me—not well at all
and sopped in booze. I get under the cold sheet.
I toss. I turn. I curse the damned ape well into morning.
I hit snooze until I’m sure he’s gone.
This has been going on for weeks
I beat my chest and show my teeth.
I pace the dark room—smoking, grumbling.
I consider buying a bigger dog, a bigger gun.
I send him death threats, then love notes. Nothing works—
I can’t shake this monkey from my back.
So excuse me for calling at this odd hour
to howl about my primate problem—the chimp on my shoulder.
or maybe a bonobo?
(you know, the one that made life with me so hard.)
In any case, he’s my problem now
and tonight he’s knocking at the door.
I want to find a way to conclude this poem? Also thinking of getting rid of "I can't shake this monkey.."
Comments
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poisoned bananas?
sounds like a bad dream to me. i really can't guess. what's the symbolism of the gorilla?
anyhow, it all seems metaphorical, and totally out of left field, which is what i guess you are going for.
made me look twice.
Pap
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'Everybody's got something to hide 'cept for me and my monkey' - now who sang that?
Man, I laughed out loud! This is an excellent conceit delivered dead-pan but with impish humour and great insight into the 'nature of the beast'. Loved all the tricks you used to conceal and reveal and it just flowed. Now get off that monkey's back. By the way , which one of you does the writing? Let me guess - the guy in the suit does the really good stuff - like this! Great stuff. >W<
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Refreshingly alliteral. Creative and vivid. I particularly liked how the first few stanzas described the gorilla in such realistic detail and then the metephor is brought out and expanded upon at the end.
The last stanza in particular was well constructued conceptually, (it seemed that there was a word missing in the third to last line and 'it' maybe? or you could have done that on purpose)
On the whole I thought it could have been just a little more polished, although at the same time the slight raggedness of wording contributes to mood.
But I enjoyed it.
language: 3, rhythm: 3, subject: 4, tone: 4, form: 2.
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This surreal, yet very real, piece is a plain-out knockout for me, dc. I like its format, first of all, like a traditional little narrative in six-line stanzas with intermittant rhymes neatly and naturally placed. That's fun to read and see. And it moves!
Then, and more important, I like the spaced-out tale, which I take as a poet nervous as all hell about city night life, primal life, invading his turf and troubling his dog - the Quigley lines are perfect and droll. And I then sense the poet wondering if he's up to being an animal, too, to counter the city's beasts out there; he isn't, he decides; "Nothing works."
But the poem goes further and deeper, at least as I take it. He's wondering about that monkey on his back - a minor, mischievous chimp only, or a "bonobo", a darker version of the chimp, a "clever hominid..." whose (bad) habits - like smoking (like me, too) and who knows what else, making him "hard to live with" - die damned hard. And, oh yeh, I "know."
Really strong poem, Kevin, full of refreshing and original imagination and self-probing, but done up in an off-hand theme. Hope I haven't misinterpreted it, but even so, I dig the surreality and the poetic skill. GOOD read!
Later...
Lad
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