The Monkey's Wish

Blanketed beneath
The monkey smells the jewel.
There!  It's there!  He reaches in
And touches it,
The sickle-shaped plantain
Ambrosia to his heart's desire
He will not be detained.

He curls his simian fingers
Round the golden crescent there,
And grips-- the strength of ten
It's his!  He smells it, lashed and tied,
Within its clever snare
He knows he cannot lose,
For the power he feels within
Is more than mere desire,
It's the single thing (he thinks inside)
That lights him from within

As if to save his life, he clings
To tethered, dewy fruit,
So precious, and so very sweet,
And worth this grim pursuit
Oh vain, impetuous monkey,
Crouched in the shadows dark
Never guessing, never seeing
That it's freedom, wide-eyed freedom
Exchanged tonight
For this illicit lark--

For, you see,
The fruit he craves is trickster
Through and through,
Deceptive, it seduces him
With covenants untrue
With veiled winks of heart's desires,
Of fears dispelled and loves fulfilled,
Assurances to gratify
That acrid bite of hunger
In his heart he lonely feels

Do not listen, my noble friend,
To those enshrouding lies,
Turn askance that transfixed stare
Which grips your hungry eyes,
The sacred fruit is in you now
You only need but listen…
There!  It's there!
You only need to listen
It waits for you within your soul
With patience for the whole of you
With kindness for the whole of you
Just as you are
Just as you are
Your truest friend, the whole of you


--July 19, 2007